There Is Always Something Worse
by Rusulka
Summary: A few weeks before Bella and Edward's wedding, something terrible happens in the state of Washington. Can the Cullens protect Bella and her father from the living dead?
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

_**He spit into the Petri dish containing the bacteria most commonly known as the "Flesh Eating Disease" and watched as the bacteria reacted. He had many such Petri dishes and test tubes in his lab. He dipped a bread crumb into the dish and placed it in the feeder of one of the lab rats.**_

_**He was a doctor, but enjoyed dabbling in the lab, experimenting with his unique physiology, trying to discover a cure for his condition. He'd been unsuccessful in his many years of experimentation, but he had discovered new treatments for other illnesses along the way, so it wasn't a complete loss. **_

_**The lab rat sniffed at the crumb and gobbled it up. It immediately vomited. The doctor noted this on his clipboard and moved onto the next experiment. He had lots of experiments planned for today and it wasn't unusual for a rat to vomit the infected food, so he took no notice.**_

_**A few hours later, it was time to head home. He had a shift at the Forks Hospital and it would be a long drive. His lab was in a secure, underground facility several miles from home. He was proud of it. With the help of his family, he had built this multimillion dollar facility so that he could do his experiments without government interference. While he didn't think the government would appreciate having a secret lab with the most deadly bacteria and viruses known to man run by a small town doctor, he knew that he was more intelligent than most men out there, and felt sure that it would never be found.**_

_**He was wrong.**_

_*******_

"_**Come on, Jason, hurry up!" Phil whispered to his buddy. They had been watching the man from a distance through the binoculars over the small ridge about 5 miles away, and had been doing so for about a month. When he drove away this day, they decided to check it out. **_

"_**Jesus, I'm coming. Keep your pants on," Jason answered, trying to keep up. **_

_**They ran over to where they were keeping the four-wheelers and started them up with a roar. A short while later they were at the semi-hidden entrance, which was in the side of a small hill. **_

"_**Shit, man, how are we gonna get in? This door is like, fucking titanium or some shit," Jason mused.**_

"_**Don't worry, dude. I went to some guy and got a bomb!" Phil was excited. He was positive that this was a grow-op (why else would a young, handsome man with an expensive car drive out to the middle of no where to an un-marked building in the ground) and he was dying to get in there and steal all of the weed he could handle.**_

"_**You got a fucking bomb? Are you retarded?! Someone's gonna see that shit," Jason was stoned, but not enough to think that explosives were a good idea.**_

"_**Don't be such a pussy, Jay. It's just a pipe bomb. Besides, we are way out the middle of fucking nowhere, dude. No one is gonna notice."**_

_**Jason shrugged. "Fine then. I'm going way the fuck over there. Don't blame me when you blow your stupid ass up."**_

"_**Dude, you are such a wiener," Phil said, half to himself. Jay flipped him the bird as he walked over to where the bikes were stashed.**_

_**Phil lit the pipe bomb and started running. He caught up to Jason just as the explosive went off. The two guys flew to the ground in a dramatic, movie-like gesture as the explosive took out part of the side of the hill. The door remained standing.**_

"_**Well, at least we can get in," Phil said.**_

"_**Dude, you are seriously one fucked up fucker," Jason laughed as they walked towards the smouldering heap of dirt.**_

_**As they reached the hill, about ten rats came running out with one staggering behind the group. **_

"_**Hey, man, look at that rat, dude. It's fucking wasted!" Jason said, kneeling down to get a closer look. The rat looked stupidly up at the stoner for a moment, before leaping up and biting off a chunk of his nose.**_

"_**SHIT! FUCK! GOD-DAMN FUCKING FUCKER!" Jason screamed as he tried to stop the flow of blood. He kicked the rat away from him and ran over to Phil.**_

_**Phil stared at Jason in shock for a minute. "Shit, man, we have to get you to a hospital. That rat could have rabies, dude!"**_

_**Phil removed his shirt and gave it to Jason to help with the bleeding. Then they got on Phil's four-wheeler and began riding back to civilization.**_

_*******_

**Chapter 1 – Three Days Later**

**BPOV**

**Ugh, I was so bored! Edward was out hunting, Alice was off doing wedding things, Charlie was at work and Jake was sulking off in the wilderness somewhere. No one was around and I had nothing to do.**

**I sat at the kitchen table, impatiently tapping my fingers on the table when I heard some yelling outside. **

"**Quick, Jodi! Get the kids and get in the damn car!! Come on!" The neighbour was screaming to his wife. **

**I didn't want to be nosy, but the man sounded extremely upset. I walked over to the front window and peaked out. People all down the street were throwing shit into their cars and peeling away in a big hurry. Others were running around screaming. Windows were breaking and I could see a man lumbering up the street, moving much slower than the panicked neighbours.**

"**What the fu—," I started to mutter when Charlie's car came flying down the street, with the lights flashing and the sirens on. My heart got stuck in my throat.**

**He drove up into the yard, not even bothering to park in the driveway. He got out of the car as quick as he could, grabbing the shot gun out of the trunk before heading into the house. He was nervously looking around the yard and into the woods. I peeked my head out the front door.**

"**Dad, what's…,"**

"**Bella, get in the house," he said to me, his voice shaking.**

"**Wha--," I started and he raised his gun and shot at the man who had been lumbering up the street a moment ago.**

"**CHARLIE! What the fuck!" I yelled at him. I watched as the man fell to the ground in a limp heap, his brains oozing out of his head. I felt my stomach heave.**

"**Bella! House! NOW!" He screamed at me and ran up the steps. He grabbed my arm and pulled me inside with him. **

"**Dad! What is going on! Why did you shoot that guy? Why are all the neighbours screaming and running?"**

"**Bella, something very strange is going on, and I don't exactly know what. What I do know is that we need to barricade all the doors and windows and hide upstairs. I want you to grab as much food as you can and take it up to your room. Stay up there until I call you down." I nodded dumbly as he spoke and grabbed some grocery bags and began to pack food from the cupboards into them. **

**Charlie began to move the couch in front of the door. He ran into the basement and came out a few moments later with some old boards, nails and hammers. He saw me watching him. **

"**Bella, upstairs. Go!"**

**I ran up the stairs and dumped the food onto the bedroom floor. I stared at the food wondering how long we would be up here. I wondered where Edward was and why Alice hadn't called me to tell me what was going on. I was wondering a lot of things.**

"**Dad," I called out timidly from the top of the stairs. "How long are we going to be up here? Should I grab the camp stove?"**

**He thought for a moment and said that we might need it, so I ran back down and into the basement to get the little propane stove, the can of propane and a couple of flashlights. As I was coming back up, I heard a window break and another shot was fired.**

"**Charlie!" I screamed as I emerged from the basement. **

"**Up! Now, Bella! Run!" He yelled at me.**

**I ran -- well, stumbled would have been a better word. It was hard to run with my hands full of this stuff – back up the stairs and dumped my load onto the bed. I turned back around when I heard someone coming back up the stairs. I went back into the hall to see what was going on.**

"**Bella, I need some help. I have to destroy the staircase so they can't come up. I need to get the chainsaw out of the basement. Come get the gun and shoot anything that tries to come into the house," he said as he passed me the gun.**

**For someone as clumsy as me, I was actually a great shot. Charlie had taken me for lessons when I was younger and sometimes went to the shooting range with him. I made sure the gun was loaded and sat on the stairs watching the doors and windows and Charlie rummaged around downstairs.**

**Luckily, nothing happened while Charlie was downstairs, though I could hear some god-awful groaning noise coming from outside. He came back up and motioned for me to go back up. He started the chainsaw and came up the stairs slowly, destroying each stair as he went. He reached the landing as the staircase collapsed into the bottom floor.**

**He left the chainsaw at the landing and went into the bathroom and began drawing water into the bathtub. I watched him while leaning against the door case.**

**He began speaking before I did. "We have to fill the tub in case the power goes out. Before I got here there were reports that some of those…creatures…were out near the power station."**

"**Creatures? What do you mean?" I whispered.**

"**Bella, that thing I shot wasn't a man. Or if it was a man, it was possessed by something else. These things are wandering the streets, eating people. Sometimes those people die, but more often than not, they are changing into whatever bit them."**

"**Uh, Dad, do you realize that you are talking about Zombies?" I had seen some zombie flicks over my life, but the idea of something like that actually happening seemed ludicrous, although, if I stopped to think about it, so were vampires and werewolves and they were part of my everyday life. **

**He looked at me for a moment, and you could see him immediately comprehend what I was saying. "Zombies…Yes, I suppose you could be right."**

**He finished filling the tub and went into my room. I followed behind him. **

"**I didn't have enough wood to cover all the windows, but at least the doors are locked up tight and the larger windows have at least one board in front of them," he stopped and looked at me. "Bella, where is Edward?" Charlie asked.**

"**He was out hunting with his brothers. He was supposed to come back tomorrow sometime." I wasn't too worried about Edward, knowing that his skin was impenetrable. I did wonder why he hadn't called me yet. Or Alice. Or any of them.**

"**Then he's probably gone," he said, wrapping his arms around me in an awkward hug. I pushed back.**

"**No, Dad. No…Edward…well, I'm sure he's ok." Just then my phone beeped. **

**It was a text from Alice: **_**We are coming to get you and Charlie**_

**I looked out the window to see about 10 undead ghouls wandering around the yard. I heard a window break downstairs. Charlie grabbed the shotgun and crept out onto the landing. I heard the gunshot and then a sickening thud as a zombie dropped to the floor.**

**I texted Alice back: **_**HURRY!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Charlie came back into my bedroom and shut my door. He turned on my clock radio to listen to the news.

"_More reports of these monsters are being called in every minute and riots are breaking out all over Seattle and even in smaller communities like Port Angeles. Martial law has been declared and the police have either killed or fled. The highways are backed up for miles and the threat is spreading. Our advice is to stay home and lock the doors."_

"Help might be coming, Bells, but I doubt it will be any time soon. They need to get the larger cities under control first," Charlie said after he shut the radio back off. "Most of my force is gone. Like the radio said, they are all either dead or they fled to save their families, and I can't blame them. Mark and I were the last ones left, and there was very little we could do to save the town, so we decided to go save our own families. Mark was killed running to his car."

"Oh Dad! I'm so sorry," I said giving him a hug. I knew Mark was a good friend of Dad's and he was a really nice guy. "I got a text from Alice. The Cullen's are coming to save us."

Charlie snorted. "What good is that going to do? You call her and tell her to save herself. They won't accomplish anything except getting themselves killed."

"Um, Dad, there is something you should know about the Cullens...," I began, but then my window opened.

In a flash, Charlie stood up and fired the rifle at the window. The bullet ricocheted off Edward and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Charlie stared at Edward in amazement.

"Wha? Huh? Uh?" Charlie couldn't even form words. If it weren't for the circumstances, it would have been hilarious.

"Charlie," Edward said, coming all the way into the bedroom. "We have come to save you and Bella."

"But...but...how? How are you going to save us against that?" Charlie said, pointing out the window at the wandering mass outside of the house. "And for that matter, why the hell aren't you dead? I SHOT you!"

"Charlie, we are not what you think we are. We are vampires. We have incredible speed, strength and our home is designed to be a fortress," Carlisle said, climbing into the window after Edward.

"Pardon?" Charlie asked, quite impolitely to our saviours.

"Dad, you heard it right. Edward and his family are vampires," I said.

"You...," he began, but just then we heard front door downstairs break open. Carlisle grabbed Charlie's gun from him and went out to the landing.

"Charlie, Bella, you need to gather what you can carry." A shot fired. "As soon as Emmett and Jasper get here to clear a path, we are leaving," Carlisle told us.

I turned to Edward and he pulled me into a tight embrace, but we had no time to savour the moment. "Come on," Edward said. "We have to get moving."

I started throwing clothes and toiletries into my oversized duffle bag. Charlie stood, mouth agape, staring at Edward. Carlisle came back into the room and looked out the window.

The zombies outside had multiplied. There were now at least 15 that I could see and I knew there were more in the back of the house too. I saw Jasper on top of the roof of the neighbour's house with a cross-bow and I assumed Emmett was around somewhere.

"Why is Jasper using a cross-bow? Couldn't you all just crush them with your bare hands or outrun them all?" I asked. "And where are Alice, Rose and Esme? Are they ok?"

"Jasper is using a cross-bow because it's less messy. We don't really know what happened to those humans, and while they wouldn't be able to bite us, we're not sure what would happen if we were to accidentally get blood into our mouths or eyes. Carlisle wanted us to be extremely careful when dealing with these things." Edward frowned for a minute, and then continued. "Esme and Rosalie are out looting the grocery store for supplies for you and Charlie. Alice is at home preparing the house for a siege."

I looked out the window again. I tried to look more closely at them without really wanting to. I was hoping that I wouldn't see anyone I recognized, but my hope was squashed when I noticed Tyler staggering around, a giant chunk torn out of his neck and face, the wound slowly leaking some sort of fluid that wasn't really blood. I ran to the bathroom and vomited. Edward followed me in to hold my hair.

When I came back out, Charlie hadn't moved from where he stood. Emmett had shown up and was talking to Carlisle.

"There are only five left in the backyard, but there are more coming down the street. We should make a run for it now before more catch wind of where we are and where we are going," Emmett was saying, his voice shaking noticeably. I found this very odd and looked at Edward, who shrugged.

"Then let's go!" I said.

"Hold on just one minute!" yelled Charlie. "Vampires? Are you fucking kidding me? I am NOT leaving his house to face Zombies with Vampires. Bella, did you know about this? What the hell??"

"Dad, would you rather be saved by vampires or killed by zombies?" I said, getting onto Edward's back.

"Can someone please explain some of this shit when we get to your place?" he asked.

Carlisle said "Yes, I will tell you everything."

"Good."

Charlie was hoisted up into Carlisle's back and Emmett grabbed our gear.

We jumped downstairs and crashed through the front door. We ran at the inhuman speed I was now used to through the town and into the woods heading towards the Cullen's place, Jasper following behind us, shooting at random zombies.

"Edward, where were you all day? Didn't Alice see this happening?" I asked.

"Alice never saw it coming. When she tries to look, she sees nothing, like she does when she tries to see the wolves," he replied.

The wolves? The wolves!! "Oh my god, Edward, what about the pack?"

"Billy called us. Apparently about 20 zombies made their way into La Push, so of course, Sam had the pack attack them, not knowing what they were. I doubt any of them were bitten, but they torn the zombies limb from limb with their teeth, so they would have ingested their fluids. They have not been able to shift back and they are all fiercely sick. Except Seth and Leah; they were in Port Angeles with Sue when the attack happened."

"Are they going to die?" I was miserable. We all fought together when Victoria was trying to kill me and there was finally a comfortable peace between the wolves and the Cullens.

"Most likely," answered Carlisle. "Since they were in their animal form, they will probably not reanimate. We have not seen any evidence that animals come back after infection. I'm sorry, Bella."

"Wolves? What are you people talking about? What about Billy? And the Clearwaters?" Charlie said, joining in the conversation. I had forgotten that he hadn't known about the pack.

"Billy said that he was going to wait and see what happened with the wolves. The rest of the zombies in their area were destroyed, but I suspect there will be more. I think he was going to stay and fight. When he was speaking with Sue, he told them to come to our place. We'll be able to protect them," said Carlisle.

"What about Jake?" I whispered. Jacob was my best friend, and even though he was off sulking that I was marrying Edward, I still loved him and a large part of me would die if something happened to him.

"No one has heard from Jacob, love. I'm sorry," Edward told me. I felt the tears well up in my eyes.

We suddenly heard an inhuman shriek. We stopped in our tracks and I looked up from Edward's shoulder to see Emmett cowering in front of a couple of zombies that were blocking our path. I heard Edward sigh as he snatched Emmett's collar and drug him along with us in another direction. Emmett caught his balance and began racing ahead, screaming like a girl.

"Edward, what the fuck's with Emmett?" I asked.

Edward sniggered and said "I'll tell you later."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

BPOV

We made it to the Cullen's house without much interruption. Esme was standing on the porch waiting for us with a long bow in her hand, scanning the area for the foul creatures. We ran through the door.

"What's with all the weapons?" I asked. "Do you have a stockpile?"

"Actually, yes, we do," Edward said as he let me down off his back and onto the couch. "Carlisle has collected all sorts of weaponry from the ages. Some of them, like Esme's longbow were on display in various parts of the house. Most of them, though, are in storage at Carlisle's lab."

"Ok, everyone, we need to prepare for a possible siege. The Clearwaters are expected to be here soon, so we can't close the wall just yet," Carlisle was saying. "Jasper, Esme, I need you two to go up to the roof and take aim at anything that comes along. Rose and Emmett will keep an eye for the Clearwaters. Alice, we need you to try to see what is going on. Edward and I will try to explain everything to Charlie."

Holy crap, I forgot about Charlie. He was just standing out of everyone's way in the middle of the room, looking pale and drawn. I thought he was actually going to pass out.

"Charlie, please come sit down. I know this is all a big shock to you," Edward said.

Charlie hesitated for a few minutes, but finally joined me on the couch. Carlisle sat on the coffee table across from us and Edward moved to sit next to me. Alice had moved to the chair next to Charlie, but her face was a blank slate, looking to see what Charlie's reaction might be.

"So. Vampires." Charlie started. "Werewolves and vampires. Oh! And zombies! What the hell?" His voice was raised and he was very close to yelling. His face was turning all shades of purple. "And you," he turned to me, with a look that was close to horror. "You knew about all this? How could you…? Why did you…? How could you have kept this from me?" he finally spit out.

I could feel my face redden with shame. "Dad—."

Carlisle cut me off. "Charlie, please let me explain."

"Fine. You just try to explain this craziness to me," Charlie said throwing his hands up in the air in an exasperated move.

So Carlisle began giving Charlie a brief rundown of their backgrounds and talents, plus as much as he knew about the Quileute legends and the wolves.

Charlie interrupted. "Wait a minute! So, Jake is a werewolf?"

"Yeah Dad," I answered.

He muttered something about me not being able to meet normal boys and let Carlisle continue his story.

Charlie sat and listened to everything that Carlisle and Edward told him. His face scrunched up a few times, like when it was explained that Edward could read minds and Carlisle was several hundred years old, but overall, it seemed to me he was handling it well. Of course, some parts were left out, like the war with the newborns and how many times I've nearly died in the past couple of years. I'm pretty sure Charlie wouldn't handle all that too well.

When Carlisle and Edward were finished, Charlie closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Please excuse me for a moment," he said as he stood. "Do you have a washroom upstairs?"

"The third door on the right off the second landing," Carlisle replied.

He disappeared upstairs. I began pacing, worrying what he was thinking.

"Calm down, Bella. He's handling all of this quiet well, actually," Alice said. "He'll be down in another 7 minutes and 52 seconds."

Edward pulled me to the couch to stop my pacing and put his arms around me. He flipped on the tv to CNN. They were calling the situation "Zombie Watch 2009" (I rolled my eyes at that), and thankfully, the problem had not spread past Washington. The American and Canadian armies were quarantining the entire state and there were reports of them shooting anyone or anything leaving the state. Somehow, this did not make me feel any better about the situation.

Just as Alice had predicted, Charlie came back down the stairs 7 minutes and 52 seconds later.

"Dad? Are you ok?" I asked, walking over to where he stood at the bottom of the stairs.

He put his arm around me and gave me a half-smile. "Not really, Bells," he said, "but sometimes we have to suck it up and deal with it. Now, what can I do to help? I can't just sit here doing nothing!"

I smiled. "Come on, Dad. We should make sure that we have enough provisions for our human needs, like toilet paper and orange juice." I grabbed Charlie's arm and pulled him towards the kitchen.

***

Charlie, Edward and I had just finished counting the last can of food in the house. There were cans of food everywhere; on every surface of the kitchen, piled up in the basement, stuffed in the rarely used bathroom on the first floor; just everywhere. Not to mention all the frozen food in the two new giant freezers downstairs. Esme even had the foresight to think to get dry ingredients for making baked goods. And, of course, the extra generators. There would be enough supplies to last the 3 humans and two werewolves at least a couple of months. I really hoped we wouldn't be stuck here that long.

"Edward, you say you can read minds. Can you hear their thoughts? The zombies, I mean," Charlie said suddenly, breaking me out of my thoughts.

Oh, ew! I hadn't even considered that! I was horrified to think Edward was being plagued with hearing "_BRAINS, BRAINS_!" over and over in his head.

"I hear something, but they don't really have thoughts, per se. It's more like a vague awareness or a collective humming. They don't seem to be aware of each other or anything else for that matter, except for, um, food. They can hear and smell, but they only register the sounds and odor of potential meal sources. They act on instinct, but their only instinct is to feed." Edward stopped to collect his thoughts for a minute, and then opened his mouth to continue, but the only thing that came out was a horrible moaning. He fell to his knees.

I ran over and put my arms around him. "Edward, what's wrong?! What's the matter?" I shrieked.

He looked up at me, his face somehow paler and hallow. It held the same look of pain and horror that it had held when we were in Voltouri and Jane used her sick talent to torture him.

"It's Seth. He's coming with Sue and Leah, but he's in his wolf form." He turned to look at Carlisle, who appeared suddenly in the kitchen with Alice. "Carlisle, I can hear the pack through him. They've become...zombies, or at least some variation of it. And they can tell where Seth is through his thoughts and he's too panicked to realize it. He's leading them right to us!"

Emmett, who had been nervously flitting through the house, obsessively checking to make sure all the doors and windows were locked, suddenly shrieked.

"You mean they are coming here?? The wolves are coming HERE? There are ZOMBIE-FUCKING WOLVES AND THEY ARE COMING HERE????" Emmett was beside himself, unable to sit still. He raced from one corner of the room to the other so fast Charlie and I could barely see him.

"Bells," Charlie whispered to me, with a concerned look on his face. "What's up with that one?" I shrugged. Emmett was acting really bizarrely. I couldn't figure out what his deal was.

"Jasper, you'd better come down here," Alice called to her husband. Poor Jasper. I couldn't imagine the turmoil he must be going through with all of our random emotions.

Edward and Carlisle tried to hold Emmett still while a feeling of calm spread through the room. The rest of us mellowed out and panic that we were all on the edge of seemed to fade a little more. Emmett sunk to the ground and wept tearlessly. Rosalie sat with him and tried to soothe him.

"Wait a minute! Did he just say that zombie wolves were coming?" Charlie asked, breaking out of Jasper's calm.

"Yes," Edward seethed. He looked at me, his face full of fright and rage. I looked back, trying to keep my composure. I was terrified, and I'm sure my racing heart gave it away, but I willed myself to keep together. The situation was bad enough, without having someone else panicking. Edward moved to stand beside me and buried his face in my hair.

I turned around and held him as tight as I could. I was upset and frightened and needed to feel his cold body against mine. I wished that I let him take me that day in the meadow when I took his ring. I had a horrible feeling that I was going to die a virgin.

"I won't let anything happen to you, I swear," he whispered in my ear, sensing my angst.

I wanted to believe him. But I didn't.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"The Clearwaters are here," Alice announced. She opened the front door and Seth in his giant wolf form with Sue on his back flew into the room. Leah was close behind, but was in her human form. Before the door closed, I saw a zombie that looked an awful lot like Mr. Banner stumble through the yard before an arrow shot it down. It twitched on the ground for a moment before becoming still. I shuddered and Edward tightened his grip on me a little.

"Come back in, Esme. We're closing the wall," Carlisle said. Esme was barely in the house before the large metal plates covered the glass wall. Rosalie pressed another switch and the rest of the windows in the house with the exception of the third story ones were covered with the same metal. Edward had explained that we would need those ones for fresh air and a quick escape route, if necessary.

Seth phased back and began talking excitedly. It had taken them hours to even get out of Port Angeles once the riots broke out, and with all the people on the streets, the hoards were having a feast. So he phased to get his mother out of there quicker.

"Jesus, dude, those things are everywhere! And do they ever stink! I'd rather rub my face in your guys' hair than to take a whiff of those nasty things," Seth said. Leah nodded, agreeing with him.

"Seth, when you were phased, did you notice the rest of the pack's thoughts?" Edward asked as calmly as possible, which was not very.

Seth looked confused as he thought back. "No, man, I was just on a high trying to get here. I didn't hear any other thoughts, but I wasn't listening." Seth paused and then said, "Did you hear them through me? Are they coming to help?

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and took a few deep breaths. "Seth, I don't know exactly what happened with the rest of the pack. Carlisle thought that animals couldn't reanimate, but it seems he was wrong." He glared at Carlisle, who looked away guiltily. "I could see their thoughts through you. I don't even know how that is possible since I can't get actual thoughts from the other zombies, but I did. They followed you through your minds. They are coming here."

Seth's normally russet skin tone paled considerable.

"Fuck! I knew you shouldn't have phased, Seth! Why can't you ever listen to me?" Leah fumed and she began pacing and shaking.

At that, Sue broke down and began to cry and shake uncontrollably. Charlie went over to Sue and pulled her down on the couch with him. He tried to console her, telling her it would be all right.

"Oh shit! They're coming! They're coming! They're still coming! Holy fuck, we're all gonna die! SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" Emmett was rambling until Rosalie slapped him.

"Emmett, I love you, but shut the hell up! We are all under enough strain without your babbling," she told him. Jasper had to send out another calming wave to get everyone settled down again. He looked exhausted.

Emmett shrunk his massive form into the corner of the living room next to the fireplace and whimpered.

"Dude," Seth whispered to Edward. "What's up with Emmett?"

Edward just shook is head and Rosalie rolled her eyes. Jasper answered him: "Emmett, for some reason, is absolutely terrified of zombies."

"No shit," I said, "but why?" I could not believe that the biggest, strongest, scariest vampire I knew was scared of zombies.

"Dude, are you fucking kidding? We're all scared, but aren't you taking this a little far?" Seth asked, being of the same mindset as me.

"I…I…I can't help it. Believe it or not, being scared of zombies is one of my only clear human memories," Emmett said, looking up at us all. He looked terribly small and ashamed. My heart broke for him.

"Oh, honey!" Esme said, coming to sit down next to Emmett on the floor. She wrapped her arms around him. Always the mother, she hated it when one of her "children" was in pain. "Why don't you tell us about it? It might make you feel better to get this off your chest."

Emmett nodded and took a deep breath. "In 1932, when I was 17, a bunch of my friends and I scored some whiskey from my old man's liquor cabinet and we got wicked drunk. We thought it would be a good idea to sneak into the new theatre, which had just opened up. The movie that was playing happened to be a zombie flick, White Zombie with Bela Lugosi.

"By today's standards, the movie would have sucked ass, but back then, it was incredible. It helped that we were wasted. On the way home, we cut through the cemetery, thinking it would be hilarious to act like zombies. Well, I got separated from my buddies and got lost. I called out for them, but there was nothing.

"Being drunk, and not quite in my right mind, I thought I would go look for them instead of leaving the douche-bags there for deserting me. I turned the corner around the crypt and a zombie came stumbling out of the crypt, moaning and staggering around. He groaned and reached for me and I freaked! I got the fuck out of there as fast as I could. When my friends found me later, they said it was the caretaker who had gotten drunk and was looking for help. But I just remember the fear I felt, seeing his pallor face in the dark. I had nightmares for months after that. It's stuck with me ever since.

"I'm sorry, guys. I don't like being afraid, but I can't help it. I'm such a douche." Emmett hung his head in shame.

"Well, yeah, but man, you gotta suck it up. We're gonna need your help," Seth said to Emmett, kneeling down in front in him, giving him a little shake.

Emmett looked at him for a moment, then to Esme who still had her arms wrapped around him. Rosalie just snorted.

"Grow some balls, Emmett," she huffed. She turned and walked away.

Emmett stood faster than I could see him doing it. He gritted his teeth, punched the wall, leaving a giant hole in it, and stalked off in a different direction.

The silence in the room was deafening and awkward. Esme looked pleadingly to Jasper.

"I'm sorry, Esme. It was all I could do to keep him from tearing the room apart. I just don't have it in me to calm them down. I can't help everyone right now. You'll all have to do it own your own," Jasper said as he slunk into a chair. He looked positively exhausted. Alice went over to him and sat on his lap and he buried his face in her hair.

I was beginning to feel like a caged animal. The house, which had always seemed so light and airy, began to feel stuffy and closed in. I needed some fresh air, but I knew I couldn't go outside.

"Edward, can we go up stairs? I need some air," I whispered to him. He nodded and took my hand. Charlie looked up from consoling Sue.

"Bella, where are you going," he said, looking a touch panicked.

"I just need some air, Dad. I'm going to sit next to an open window for a few minutes."

He nodded and went back to comforting Sue. Edward and I went up to Carlisle's study and opened a window.

"Why aren't we in your room?" I asked.

"My room has the glass wall. It's closed up with the rest of the western side of the house."

"Right."

I pulled a chair over to the window and looked out; breathing in some much needed freshness. That's when the smell hit me. I gagged and ran into the bathroom and paid homage to the porcelain god. Edward held my hair.

"Oh god, I'm sorry Edward," I said after rinsing my mouth out. "What was that smell?"

"They are starting to converge. They seem to know we are here."

Right then, my phone beeped. I had a text message. I looked at Edward questioningly. He looked equally puzzled.

"Check it," he said.

_Bella, r u still ok? R u safe? I need help!_

My face crumpled. "Oh god!" I cried and began to sob.

"Bella! What? Who is it?"

"It's Angela! She's still alive, Edward. She needs help! How are we gonna help her?" I began to panic. Angela didn't know about the Cullens or the wolves. How could we save her with her finding out? Could we even save her, regardless of that? "What should I tell her?"

"Tell her that I'm coming to get her."

Edward and I both turned around, thoroughly shocked to see Emmett standing in the doorway with a look of fear and determination on his face.

"Em..." Edward began.

"No!" Emmett said, cutting him off. "I have been a coward too long. I need to face my fears." He turned to me. "Find out where she is. I'll get her."

"But what about, well, you know…whole vampire thing?" I asked as I began typing back to Angela.

Carlisle and Esme came into the room, having heard everything. "I don't think it matters in this situation," Carlisle said. "We have committed ourselves to saving human lives. We would be no better than the rest of them if we purposely let one die. Go Emmett, save her."

I gave Emmett Angela's location. He took Jasper's crossbow and jumped out the window. He didn't say goodbye to Rosalie.

I texted Angela back and told her help would be there soon. I prayed Emmett made it in time.

EmPOV

I can't believe it. I pour my heart out and the fucking bitch told me to grow some balls? Cunt. I couldn't believe Rosie would treat me like that. I was mad at her, but in a way, I could see her point. I was a huge coward. She just didn't have to be so mean about it.

I was running to where Angela had told Bella where she would be, which was the other side of Forks. I would be there in minutes, assuming I didn't run into one of those fuckers.

Zombies…I can't fucking believe I was terrified of zombies! Stupid zombies and their stupid lumbering and moaning. I was having the shittiest day ever. Zombies invade Washington, my family thinks I'm a fucking coward, including my wife and now I have to explain to Angela why I run faster than the speed of sound. Assuming she wasn't dead by the time I reached her.

I slowed as I reached her house. I had been lucky to avoid them so far, but my luck had run out. There was a handful pawing at the windows of her house. Shit. I began shaking. If I was still human, I'm sure I'd have pissed myself. I heard a strange squeaking noise and realized that it was coming from me.

Jesus, Em, get a hold of yourself! You are Emmett! You are strong and brave! You're a fucking VAMPIRE for Christ's sake!

I took a deep breath to calm down. I needed to think. If I shot at them from here, they would probably lumber over here and I couldn't deal with that. _Now if I just…_

I felt something. I felt something beside me. I peeked over to see zombie standing right beside me. Something was not quite right with this zombie. I looked closer. It looked like Ben. Poor guy. He was missing an ear and part of his shoulder. The wounds were oozing. Gross-out! And it was doing something. Something unpleasant. HOLY FUCK IT WAS NAWING ON MY ARM!!!

I screamed loudly and shoved Zombie-Ben away from me and I shot it in the head with my crossbow.

"Guuuuuhhhhh," Zombie-Ben said as it stumbled backwards and fell to the ground.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I yelled as I backed away from it. I looked up to see that the zombies surrounding Angela's house were making their way over to me. "SHIT!"

I lifted the crossbow to fire it again, but I was so scared and nervous that I wasn't able to control my strength. I crushed the crossbow to splinters.

"FUCK!"

I was barely able to think through my terror, but I knew I had to get the fuck out of there. I ran to my right and climbed up onto the house next to Angela's and jumped over to her roof. I stamped my foot down, breaking the roofline and I fell less than gracefully into her kitchen.

"Angela! Where the hell are you? We are getting out of here!"

I could hear whimpering coming down the hall, so I ran down that way and opened the door to the bathroom. Angela was cowering in the bathtub. There was glass all over the floor from the broken window. You could see hands and the tops of zombie heads and hear their moaning.

"Angela, are you ok?" I asked as calmly as I could manage in my state of mind.

"No, I mean yes, I mean no," she blubbered.

"Come on. We're going. I'm going to carry you. You just keep your eyes closed until we stop, ok?" I did not want her to see Zombie-Ben in the street.

She nodded so I picked her up into my arms and I ran back into the kitchen. Holding her in one arm, I jumped and lifted us back onto the roof. I jumped from roof to roof until the line of houses ran out and then I flew through the forest as fast as I could go until I reached our house. I began to slow when I heard the moans of more of those fucking things.

"Angela, we are at my house, but don't open your eyes yet, ok? There are more of them out here, but we will be safe inside."

I heard her whimper her acknowledgement.

"Guys, we could use some help, please," I said, knowing that they would be able to hear me from inside. I saw Carlisle and Jasper up on the roof in a flash, brandishing the long bow and Charlie's shotgun. Shots were fired from both and a path was cleared. I ran up to the house and climbed up into the open window in Carlisle's study. Bella and Edward were there waiting. I set Angela down and Bella ran towards her.

"Oh Bella!" exclaimed Angela. "It was awful! They got my parents and they got the twins and Ben! They got Ben! Oh God!" She broke down sobbing while Bella held her and rocked.

"What happened?" Edward asked me low enough so that Angela wouldn't hear. I showed everything that had happened in my head. I watched his face, looking for a smirk or an eye-roll; something that would give away his reaction to his lame-ass brother. Instead, he stood next to me and clasped my shoulder.

"You did great, Em," he said.

I grinned for the first time since this bullshit started up. I thought I should go find Rosie and show her that I had balls the size of grapefruits.

"Er, now might not be the best time," Edward said, hearing my intentions. "Rose is really pissed off."

I nodded. I knew what she was like.

"Fine, I'll just go downstairs and see what's going on."

Edward nodded.

"Bella, bring Angela downstairs," he said to Bells. "We need to fill her in as to what is going on."

She nodded. "Come on, Ang. Let's go down. Charlie's here and some friends of ours from the rez, too. You won't be alone; we'll help you."

She helped Angela up and we all headed back downstairs.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

AngPOV

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew something was odd about the way Emmett rescued me, but at the moment, I just didn't care. I had watched as those things dragged my father out of the kitchen window, all the while biting and tearing his flesh away from his body. When they grabbed my mother, I fought back, trying to keep her in the house, but all I succeed in doing was helping them dismember her. I watched in horror as her arms became detached from her body while I was still holding onto them. Her screams tore through the air, piercing my ears and making them ring.

But the worst was when I saw Ben take one of my little sisters. He grabbed her while I was trying to pick them up and run into the bathroom. He tore her away from me, and my sister's cries filled my ears. I already knew that they had gotten to him. He had called me from his cell when he was running towards my house trying to escape the mob that was chasing him, but they had surrounded him and he didn't have anything to fight them off with. He told me he loved me and then dropped the phone to the ground. I heard nothing more.

I was unable to do anything, so I continued onto the bathroom with my other sister. I hadn't noticed that she had been bitten. She died in my arms. I knew what would happen next, and although I was very reluctant to give her dead body up, I was in survival mode. I opened the bathroom window and tossed her limp, little body out. I slammed the window shut onto a zombie's arm and the pressure caused the old window to break. That was just great. Now I had nothing to stop them from coming in. I curled up in the bathtub and began to sob. I considered taking a piece of the broken glass and slitting my wrists, but I didn't consider it too hard. I would go to hell if I committed suicide, I figured. God would want me to be brave and fight for my life. But I could think of nothing to do except sit back down and cry.

Time passed. It couldn't have been too long, but it felt like hours. I began to wonder about my other friends. I felt around in my pockets, wondering if I had enough sense to grab my cell. I had! I yanked it out of my back pocket and scrolled through the contacts. I texted Jess and Lauren, but there was no answer. I tried Mike, Tyler, and a few other people from my class, but there was nothing. Bella was the last person on my contact list and by the time I had reached her number, I was beginning to feel a little helpless.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when my phone buzzed back at me. Bella was safe! I nearly cried with relief. She was sending Emmett over to get me. I didn't think that was a very smart thing to do, but at that point, I didn't care. I didn't want to die this way, hiding in a bathtub, too afraid to run or fight back.

Just minutes later, I heard someone cursing outside and my heart fell. Emmett must have gotten caught. I had started to text Bella to let her know what was happening when I heard a giant crash in the kitchen.

"Oh my god, they broke through! They're coming, they're coming!" I wept to myself. But then I heard Emmett's loud, booming voice. He broke into the bathroom and asked me if I was ok.

I honestly can't remember if I answered him or not, but he picked me up and told me to shut my eyes, so I did. I didn't want to see what was going on or who was out there. Then we were flying. Or at least it felt like that. I felt the wind whip through my hair and Emmett's cold arms held onto me tightly. I hoped that he would never let me go. It was terrifying.

Within minutes, he said we were at his place. He wanted me to keep my eyes closed until we got inside and that was ok with me. He called for some help from his family and I heard something whistling through the air followed by the sickening thud of dropping zombies. We were flying again, and then Bella's warm arms encircled me. I wept with relief.

**************************************

BPOV

Two days had passed since Angela's rescue. The pack had not come yet. Carlisle guessed that once Seth shifted back into a human, the connection broke and the wolves were not able to hone in on us. Not that it mattered much. There were 15 to 20 zombies outside at any given time. At first Esme and Rosalie stood on the roof, killing them as they wandered into the yard, but Carlisle told them not to bother. They were just wasting ammo. He didn't want them retrieving the used arrows; he didn't want them touching them. He said they were unclean. I thought that was kind of funny coming from a vampire, even one as pure as Carlisle.

Those of us who slept did not sleep fitfully, leaving us cranky and on edge. Quarrels broke out between us all, a lot, despite Jasper's ability to calm us down. In some instances, I think Jasper lost control of his emotions, projecting them onto us, making it worse.

Leah hated everyone and had no problems letting everyone know it. She constantly spewed rude and even racists comments at the Cullens until Sue slapped her, breaking her hand in several places. Carlisle set it as best he could, but without some of the proper hospital equipment, it probably wouldn't heal right. So now, Leah was even more upset and humiliated, therefore was twice as rude and racist. Goody.

Charlie was especially irritating to me. He was constantly hovering over Edward and me, refusing to let Edward and I sleep in the same room. Several times we had to remind him that a) Edward didn't sleep and b) we were engaged to be married. Eventually, I screamed at him to get over it. He left me alone after that, but I doubt that he was anywhere near over it.

Emmett and Rosalie were still not speaking to each other. Emmett was hurt at Rosalie's lack of compassion. I'm not really sure what Rosalie's problem was. They were never in the same room at the same time.

I think the most surprising and irritating thing that had happened was Seth's imprinting on Angela. When she had walked down to meet the rest of the refugees two days ago, Seth had glanced up. I heard Edward groan as Seth's jaw dropped to the floor. Seth ran over to Angela.

"Angela? Oh, um, wow. Oh God! Er, um, I, uh…" Seth was stammering, unable to stop his verbal diarrhea. "I'm Seth, and I, um, I'm a werewolf and I love you!"

Leah muttered, "Oh for the love of god!" while Angela just stared at him like he was mentally unstable. She moved as far away from him as possible while coming into the room.

Carlisle and Edward explained the whole deal to her. I wish I could have read her mind. She didn't look surprised but she didn't look terribly happy about the whole thing either. When Seth tried to explain the werewolf-imprinting thing, Angela held up her hand for him to stop. She had reached her weirdness level, it seemed.

"Ok, Seth? Listen. I JUST lost my boyfriend. I love him very, very much. I am not ready for any of this," she said as she waved her hand in his direction. He reached out for her and she drew her hand back like she had touched fire. "Oh my god! Do not touch me! Leave me alone!" And with that, she broke into tears. Esme walked over to her and helped her off of the couch and led her back upstairs. She shot Seth the evil eye.

"Wow, I really messed that up," Seth muttered. "Edward! What is she thinking? I need to be close to her! I need to make her safe!"

"I will not invade her privacy by telling you that, but I will tell you that you need to leave her alone for a while. She's in shock and she needs time to let this all sink in."

"Yeah, but…"

"No buts, Seth," I interjected. "Ben was a great guy. She needs to mourn him. Jumping up and professing your love was not the smartest thing in the world to do! You just gotta leave her be for a while. Remember, she knew nothing about any of this before now. You can't expect her to accept any of this in minutes. She needs time to absorb this craziness plus whatever happened to her before she got here." I wasn't sure if Seth would understand my ramblings, but he just nodded and went into the kitchen to eat and sulk.

It had only been two days! What would happen in two weeks? Needless to say, we were all ready to kill each other and time was going to make it worse. Speaking of which…

"Edward, when do you need to hunt again?" I asked him. His eyes were still mostly golden, but I could see the black forming around the edge of his irises.

"I'm ok for now. Some of the others will need to hunt soon." He answered, looking around the main room where Alice and Esme were sitting. Both looked up at him; Esme's eyes were black as coal and she had a pained look on her face as Edward reminded her of her thirst.

I bit my lip before I replied. "Er…How are you going to manage that?"

He looked to Alice whose eyes were unfocused and far away. He frowned. Whatever she was looking at couldn't be good.

"I can't see anything," Alice said despairingly. "Nothing at all. Between the zombies and the wolves in the house, I am blind."

"Regardless, we'll need to go soon," Jasper said from the other side of the room. There was no colour left in his eyes at all, not even the whites. "Like, today. We don't need Alice's sight to see the outcome if we don't."

"I'm not leaving Bella," Edward argued. "I cannot leave her unprotected."

"You don't need to go this trip. It wouldn't be wise for all of us to go all at once, anyway. But Esme and I NEED to hunt. Rosalie could probably stand to go as well." Jasper said. "Rose, get down here. We need to plan a hunt."

Rosalie suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "Why can't we just go? Why do we need to plan this? It's not like we can do anything other than kill them or run from them." Esme nodded in agreement.

The rest of the Cullen's converged in the main room, with the exception of Emmett. He stayed in the kitchen to avoid his wife.

"Alright then," said Jasper. "Esme, Alice, Rose and I will go now. We'll take the crossbow. Can the rest of you wait a few days?"

Edward and Carlisle nodded. I heard Emmett say "Yup" from the kitchen.

"Alright then. Keep your cells handy. We'll have to stick close together. I'm not sure how far we'll have to go to find food. The zombies seem to have eaten whatever they could find around here." Jasper.

"We'll go as far as we have to. Maybe we should try to bring back some animals for later? You know, so we don't have to leave again so soon," Esme said looking over at Carlisle.

"It's a nice thought, but where would we keep them? The zombs would just eat them and we can't keep live animals in the house or the garage." Emmett had starting calling them zombs.

"Maybe we should consider draining them into some bags or something," Alice said. "Carlisle, do we have any blood bags and equipment?"

"Yes, there is some stored in the basement. We could try that. It would be a good backup," Carlisle said.

He ran downstairs and was back again with the equipment before I could blink. He gave the supplies to Rosalie.

"Good luck," he said as he kissed Esme goodbye.

The group ran up the stairs and then they were gone.


	6. Chapter 6

JPOV

We stopped when we reached the roof of the house to plot out which direction we should take. I looked over at Alice, hoping that she would be able to see where we should go. My hope was quickly squashed.

"Don't look at me," she said. "I can't see anything."

"Welcome to normal, you little freak," Rose said in a snarky tone. I could feel her emotional turmoil roll through her. I couldn't decide if she was more angry, jealous or just plain mean.

"Rosalie, shut up. I am tired of your attitude," Esme said, surprising us all. It was a rare day when Esme scolded one of us, and that was usually when Emmett and I wrestled and caused utter destruction to her home. Rose stared at our family's matriarch for a moment and then hung her head in shame.

"I'm sorry, Esme," she muttered. Esme nodded, but said nothing.

"Alright, " I said, "We'll jump off the roof towards the river heading north. There are less zombies on that side to get in our way."

No one objected so I jumped down and headed in that direction, avoiding all the zombies that were near the house. We ran for miles, not seeing any zombies in the dense forest, but we weren't seeing any wildlife either. The forest was oddly quiet. We stopped after about 20 miles or so.

"Maybe we're far enough away from everything now. Alice, can you see?" I asked.

She stood still for a minute, her eyes glazing over. She grimaced several times during her visions.

"That can't be good," Rose said. A spasm of fear ripped through all of us.

"Alice?" Esme whispered.

"Well, if we go a few miles south, we'll find some deer, but not enough to fill the blood bags. If we try to leave the state, the army, no matter where we try to leave, will catch us. The Volturi are watching the situation very closely. If we get out alive, they will be coming to make sure Bella has been changed. Oh, and the government will probably nuke us all."

"Well, shit," I said.

"Oh dear," Esme said.

"Fuck," Rose said.

"Well, we can't do anything about that now," I said after a long pause. "Let's go hunt and we'll get what we can.

We headed south, coming across a small herd of 6 deer. We would have to ration ourselves if we planned on bringing anything home with us.

"Ok," I whispered, "Alice and Rose, one deer each. Esme and I need more, so we'll take one each and share another. That will leave one left for the blood bags." The group nodded and we took off. I ran through the herd first, grabbing the two largest deer. I broke one's neck and drained the other within moments. I left the large buck and went over to share Esme's second kill.

Alice and Rose had set up the equipment to drain the buck's blood for the bags. Draining the beast took a considerable amount of time, since his heart was no longer beating. We had to keep squeezing it; it was like deflating an air mattress. In the end, we were able to get about 12 pints.

We had disposed of the carcasses, gathered up the blood bags when Esme sniffed the air and let out a low growl.

***

BPOV

"Oh my God!" I shrieked out loud.

"What?! Is something wrong? Are you hurt?" Edward said, running over to me in the blink of an eye.

"I haven't called Renee! Oh God," I said as I went searching through the living room for my phone. "She probably thinks we're dead! Oh, poor Mom!"

Charlie, who had been watching Zombie Watch on CNN, snorted. I turned to look at him.

"What?" I asked, in a real sarcastic, snotty teenage tone.

"Renee's a twit. I doubt she even realizes what's been going on," he said, looking over at me.

"DAD!" I gasped in horror. I couldn't believe he would even think such a thing, let alone say it out loud, to me, his daughter. "What a horrible thing to…How could you…" I stopped for a minute. "Yeah, you're probably right," I muttered. "I still should call her."

"Be my guest," he said, waving his hand as to indicate that I should do so.

With Edward's help, we eventually found my phone lodge into the couch cushions. I dialed Renee's number. It rang a few times then went to voicemail.

"Hey Mom. I just wanted to let you know that Dad and I are ok. Call me back when you get this, kay? Love you, bye."

I flipped my phone shut and looked at the battery power, which was flashing to show that I should recharge soon.

"Shit. Edward, did I bring my phone charg--," I began, but cut myself short when the power went out and everything went dark. We all sat there in almost total darkness for a few minutes, waiting for the generator to kick in. The only ray of light was coming from the top of the stairs.

"I'll go down and see what's wrong with the generator," Edward said after a few minutes had passed. I couldn't see him very well, but I could feel him move off the couch.

"Hold up, bro. I'll help you out," Emmett said and the two of them went into the basement to do some handyman work. I could hear them downstairs banging and cursing occasionally.

Edward came up after a few minutes looking for Carlisle, who had come down from his study when he heard the boys cussing at the generators. "Where did Alice get those generators? The Dollar Store? They are complete crap!" Edward yelled at Carlisle in frustration.

"Calm down. Let me look." So Carlisle joined the boys downstairs and more cussing ensued. After about ten minutes of more clanking and cursing, we heard a very loud crash and then a very loud "FUCK!"

"Way to go, dumbass," Edward said as the Cullen men clomped back up the stairs.

"Well, I'm frigging sorry. I didn't mean for my finger to slip and I certainly didn't mean to crush the whole damn thing to rubble," Emmett said.

"Yes, well now we don't have any power for the appliances. The food is going to spoil if the power doesn't come back on."

"Well, Soo-rry, Mr. High and Mighty. If you—,"

"Enough!" Carlisle said, finally speaking up. "I'll listen to no more of your arguing. You two haven't been children in over 75 years. Quit acting as though you were."

"Yes, Carlisle," Edward said.

"Sorry," Emmett replied.

Carlisle nodded. "Go look for some candles and flashlights. It's too dark for Bella and Charlie to stay down here with the windows shut. Bella, Charlie, you two are welcome to use my den upstairs, and of course, any other room where you feel comfortable."

"Where did Sue and the kids wander off to?" Charlie asked.

"Sue is sleeping in my and Esme's room. Seth and Leah are on the roof trying to get some fresh air. There is a nice breeze blowing the scent of the unclean in the opposite direction. Angela is in Alice and Jasper's room"

Charlie nodded and headed towards the stairs. He stopped and turned to me. "Bells, I'm going to head up and try to get a nap in. Listen, I'm sorry, Bella. I don't mean to be short with you; I'm just not used to being stuck like this. I'm desperate worried about Billy and the rest of them up at La Push. And I'm worried about you too. I promise I'll try to be nice. Fighting doesn't do us any good."

"Dad, it's ok," I said as I tried to make my way over to him. I bumped my shin on the coffee table. "Ouch! Dad, I'll try to be nicer too. I love you."

"You too Bells," he said and gave me a quick hug. He turned and headed up the stairs to find a bed.

"Edward, let's go up to your room. Being down here gives me the creeps," I said making my way to the stairs.

I felt myself lift off the ground as Edward picked me up and ran up to his room. We passed a startled Charlie and I barely made out a "Sorry!" before I was tossed on Edward's bed. I squealed as I landed on the soft gold coloured comforter. Edward grinned and joined me.

"Are you going to be able to fix the generators?" I asked after giving Edward a quick kiss on the lips.

"Well, one of them Emmett mangled beyond recognition. We might be able to fix the other one. We'll have to wait until Rose gets back. She's better at those things than any of us."

"If you can't fix it, what will we do?"

"Er...I'm not sure. The food in the fridge and freezers will spoil, but we still have all the dry stuff. There is enough water to last quite some time. But the pump for the well won't work without power, which means you'll be bathing with bottled water."

The thought of not bathing for days on end living near beings with a supernatural sense of smell did not appeal to me at all. I hoped everyone brought enough deodorant.

Edward continued, "We have some of that camping gear in the garage still. I guess you'll have to use the camp stove for cooking. I'm not sure how much propane is left though."

I wondered how we would get to the garage. There must have been about 20 zombs in the yard between here and there. I said just that to Edward.

"We have an underground passage to the garage," he said.

"Really? I guess I'm not surprised. Do you have secret rooms in the house that I should know about?"

"Er…" Edward hesitated before answering. "Yes, but I think I will wait until the others get back before I talk about that. If we can't get the generator going, we're going to have to come up with other options."

"Fair enough," I said, although I was now dying of curiosity. Secret rooms, hidden tunnels; this place was like an old English castle, complete with vampires!

_Beep…Beep…Beep_ said my phone. I dug it out of my pocket in time to watch the battery signal flash once more before my phone died and shut itself off.

"Shit," I sighed, shoving the phone back in my pocket. "Can I use your phone to call Renee again? I want to leave her your number in case she decides to call."

"No problem, love," Edward said as he tossed me his fancy I-phone. I played around with it for a few minutes trying to figure out how to use it. I dialed Renee, again. It went to voicemail, again.

"Hey Mom, it's me again. We don't have any power and my phone died, so I can't charge it. Call me on Edward's phone, please, when you get this." I left the number and hung up. I gave it back to Edward who slipped it back into his pocket.

I suddenly felt really tired. I lay down and Edward curled in behind me, but not before covering me with the comforter. He began humming my song.

"What time is it?" I asked him. The dimness of the room had me thrown off.

"It's nearly 7," he answered.

"Morning or night? I have lost my concept of time."

Edward chuckled. "Night," he replied and continued humming. I listened to him for a while.

"When will the others be back?"

"I don't know for sure. They are far enough away that I can't hear their minds. They've only been gone a couple of hours, though."

"Are you worried for them?"

"Yes, but they are capable. I'm sure they'll be fine. Alice will be able to see now that she's away from the wolves and the zombies."

"Right." I began rocking slightly to Edward's humming. I might have even dozed for a bit. My mind kept coming back to one thing and that kept me from really falling asleep.

"Edward," I said. "I don't want to die a virgin."

He stopped humming and rolled me over to face him. "What brought that on?" he asked, a little panicked. "You're not doing to die! I won't allow it! I will keep you safe, my Bella. I swear it."

I turned my head up towards his and I kissed him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

APOV

Esme's growl startled me for a minute, but then it hit me.

"What's that smell?" I asked, even though I already knew.

"It's the smell of werewolf," Jasper said, suddenly on the alert. He positioned himself in front of me in a protective way.

"About how far away is it?" asked Esme. She had crouched down low beside me.

Rosalie closed her eyes and sniffed the air. "It's coming from the north. A couple of miles; three at the most."

"Should we go see? Maybe some more of the La Push tribe got away. Or if it's the infected wolves, we should know that too," I said.

"I think we should," Esme said.

Jasper seemed to roll the idea around in his head for a few minutes. "I'll go. Wait here."

"Jasper, wait!" I said, grabbing his arm before he could get far. I started to tell him that I should go or that we should all go together, but he stopped me before I even started.

"Alice, hun, don't worry," he said, sending out his calm. I relaxed. "If they are the zombie wolves, I have a better chance of escaping. I'll just calm them into a stupor."

I had no argument, other than I didn't want him to face them alone. "Hurry back," I whispered.

"I'll be back in a jif, Alice." He kissed me and then he was gone, the leaves of the plants and trees around us fluttering in his wake. I searched for his future furiously, but there was nothing.

JPOV

I kissed Alice and took off before she could convince me other wise. I had no desire to face the zombie wolves, as they had come to be called, but I wanted one of the girls to go even less than I wanted to. And this had to be checked out.

I slowed as the scent got stronger. I felt like gagging at its musky, dog odour, but I didn't smell the rotting smell that usually accompanies the zombies. I hoped that meant that whomever I was coming across was not infected, but I didn't let my guard down just in case. I crouched down as I crept closer.

I saw a large, reddish-brown coloured wolf stopped at a deer carcass; blood caked on its muzzle from having just eaten. The carcass smelled clean, uninfected. This wolf wasn't sick.

"Jacob," I said, as I straightened up.

He looked up, growling. I had surprised him. He calmed as soon as he recognized me, without any of my help. I could feel his fear and anger and confusion as he lopped over, but it wasn't directed at me. He sat down in front of me and made a strange barking sound. I guessed that to mean that he wanted some information.

"I'm with Alice, Rose and Esme. We're heading back to the house. The rest of us are there along with Bella, Charlie, Angela and the Clearwaters." He stood and yipped at the mention of the Clearwaters. "You might want to change back into a human, though," I said. "Seth almost led the rest of the pack to us once already."

The air shifted and vibrated as Jacob morphed into his human form. He stood before me, as naked as the day he was born. He didn't seem to care.

"They're all infected, aren't they? Everyone at La Push, that is," he asked, although he already knew.

"We're pretty sure. We haven't been able to contact them since the first day. It was just luck that Sue had dragged her kids to Port Angeles to go shopping. We lost contact with Billy by the end of the first day. I'm sorry, Jacob."

"I watched them fight the things. I felt how sick they got. I felt them change." Jacob sighed and his shoulders slumped forward. His defeat and sadness was coming off of him in waves and it brought me to my knees. Even though he had been off in the wild, away from La Push, his bond with his pack brothers (and sister) never diminished. He sat on the ground beside where I had fallen

"Are they following you?" I asked when I was able to control the emotion I was feeling. Sometimes it sucked being an empath.

"I couldn't tell. Their minds…their minds are deteriorating, I think. Their thought process is very different, even from when they first became infected," he said. I don't know if they recognized my thoughts or not."

We sat in silence for a little while. Just when the stench was becoming unbearable, he stood and began walking in the direction I had come from.

"We'd better get back to the house. I assume that I am welcome there, as Seth and Leah are?" He paused, looking back at me. I felt his confusion. He wasn't quite sure that he would be welcomed, after all the drama with Bella and Edward. He was still in love with her, that I could tell. But it was accompanied by a deep sadness. I felt sorry for him.

"Yes, of course. Bella and Charlie have been very worried about you. Of course, we all assumed you were still up the Yukon. Why did you come back?" I asked, though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"I had to make sure Bella was safe. I knew there was nothing I could do to save my family before I got here. I was on my way back anyway. You know, for the wedding."

I nodded. "How did you get past the army? Alice saw that if we tried to get past, we would get caught." I got up and we began walking towards the others.

"Well, actually, I let the Canadian Forces catch me. I overhead them planning a trap for one of those things. They wanted to catch one and do experiments on it and stuff. I'll tell ya, I've seen enough zombie flicks to know that is a bad idea. They're just gonna spread it if they try to catch one," he said. I nodded. Trying to study one of those things was a very bad idea. Humans were stupid, really.

"Anyway, they wanted a live animal to lure one of those things into a trap, so I got caught. Man, were they ever surprised when they opened the trap to find me!" He laughed and I chuckled along with him. I can just imagine the look on their faces after catching this giant wolf creature. "They put me into this fancy, schmancy contraption and helicopter lifted me into an area just past the Canada border into Washington. I HAD planned to break through the trap once I landed, but the cable broke when they were lowering me down and I came crashing to the ground. The trap broke and I healed from the fall fairly quickly. Luckily, there were no zombies in the area at the time. I was terrified that one would show up before my leg and ribs healed, but I was lucky.

"So after that, I just made my way down. And here I am. I saw some of those things one the way, too. Man, they are gross! I avoided them as much as possible."

"Oh goodie, it's wolf-boy," Rosalie said. By this time, we had made it back to the others. Only Esme seemed bothered by Jacob's nakedness and she tried very hard not to stare. Her embarrassment was severe and if she could blush, she would have turned 8 shades of red. I tried calming her down and she looked at me with a small smile on her face. She was grateful.

"He'll be coming back with us to the house," I said.

"Of course! Where else would he go?" Alice said. She turned to Jacob. "Bella will be very glad to see you. I know she's been worried. Charlie too."

Jacob nodded. "Let's get moving then."

***

EPOV

Her warmth enveloped me as her kiss deepened. I tried to pull back, gently pushing her face away from mine. Was she crazy? She knew what could happen! But instead of backing off, as she usually does, she crawled up onto her knees and straddled my hips.

_What? No! Oh yes!_ I thought as she ground her hips into me. I could feel her hot core on my hardness, her wetness seeping through, making me feel damp. I knew we should stop, but I didn't want to. It was like I had a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other.

"_You want this to," _the devil saidas my hands snaked around Bella's back, lifting it up from her jeans. I rubbed my cold fingers up and down her spine._ "You have waited long enough. You should take what's yours."_

"_But you're not married yet,"_ the angel chastised as Bella's mouth left mine and her lips traced over to my ear. She bit it lightly and I could hear myself growl deep in my chest. _"You promised Bella and yourself that this would be virtuous. You weren't going to ruin her like a horny teenager."_

"_Yeah, but look at the situation,"_ the devil countered when my hands found Bella's bra and broke the clasp trying to unfasten it_. _Her small breasts fell free and my hands moved of their own will to her front, where her nipples were already hard. She gasped as my thumb rolled over her nub_. "There is a good chance she will be scarred for life after this. There probably won't be a wedding and there is a very good chance you will all get killed on one way or another."_

"_But her FATHER is in the house!"_ the angel screamed at me. This little factoid only seemed to make the devil on my shoulder laugh with glee. I was suddenly even more excited than before. I grabbed her hips with both hands and ground into her core.

Emmett, who of course would be listening in on Bella and me, piped up in my brain: _"Dude, just go for it, already. Carlisle and I will be listening in case you lose control."_

Bella lifted herself off of me and tore her shirt over her head and flung it across the room. Her broken bra followed suit a second later. I sat up with her and tossed her onto her back. I snarled as I ripped her jeans off her legs and lowered myself over her to kiss her again. The kiss was deep; I opened her mouth with my tongue and carefully she licked my teeth with hers.

I very much wished that if I couldn't be human, I could be one of those vampires from the movies and tv, the ones who had fangs and could feed off humans without poisoning them. I wanted to drink from her. I wanted to bite. I could feel her pulse underneath her skin, I could hear her heart racing, pumping the warm, slick life force through her tight body.

Bella has excellent timing to make up for her poor instincts. She pushed on me to get me off of her, and I was able to snap out of the momentary blood lust. I rose off of her and she slithered out from under me. Her movement caused her scent to swirl around me. She smelled of sweat, salt and sex. I wanted her. To hell with virtue.

She pushed on me to lie back down on the bed and began to pull at my clothes. Her clumsiness caused her to fumble and she became frustrated. "Off, Edward," she said, her voice a little hoarse. "Take them off."

I removed my clothes without bothering to unfasten any buttons or zippers. They lay in a tattered heap next to the bed. I lay back down on the bed and she hovered over me, her hair tickling my chest and neck. She looked up and gave me a sweet, embarrassed smile. She lowered her head and began licking and kissing my chest. I closed my eyes and my chest rumbled with pleasure. I'm glad my hands were gripping the bed because a moment later I felt her tongue dangerously close to my groin. I heard something rip.

"Bella, I don't think…"

""Edward, shush," was all she said before lowering her mouth onto my cock. The heat of her mouth caused my eyes rolled up in the back of my head and this loud groan escaped from my mouth. I heard something else rip. She lifted her head and kissed the tip before lowering her mouth back down. I thought I was going to cum right there; I could feel my balls tightening. She must have noticed this too, because she let go of my cock and lowered her tongue to my balls. _She fucking licked my balls! _

I was trying to control myself too much to notice anything else going on. I could hear Emmett trying to tell me something but I ignored it and shut him out as best as I could. Nothing was more important than feeling Bella's mouth on my body. If I could die, I'm sure it would have been then.

She finally stopped all too soon and began crawling back up my body to give me a deep kiss.

"Edward," she whispered as let go of my lips to take a breath.

"Bella, please…" I begged. I'm not sure what I was begging for, for her to stop or to keep going. I looked up to her face and her eyes were dark with lust.

She straddled me again and gripped my cock behind her and lifted herself up over it and began to lower herself back down. She bit her lip and my head touched her wet folds. I wanted this; I didn't want this. I wanted her, she was so hot, she was going to, I was going to feel her…

Then I heard HIM. He was with the others. They were almost at the house.

"FUCK!" I yelled angrily, startling Bella so much she tumbled over and almost fell off the bed. I caught her before she landed.

"What Edward? Did I do something wrong…" Tears began to form in her eyes. I felt ashamed. I had said that word maybe a handful of times in my life and NEVER in front of Bella. It was very rude of me and while I knew she said the word without thought, I was a product of my time, just as she was, and found it crass and disrespectful to say it in front of a lady.

I sighed and pulled her to me for a hug. "No, love. You did everything right," I said as I nuzzled my face into her hair. My dick was raging at me, very annoyed at the interruption. "But the others will be here in a moment. And they are bringing someone with them.

"So what?" she asked. "Who cares about what they think we are doing? Edward I need you! I don't want to wait!"

"Bella, they found Jacob. He would care and would probably start something."

"Jake? What's he doing here? I thought he was in Canada, away from all this shit. Why the hell would he come back here?" She was getting angry, now. "Asshole," she muttered and she hopped off the bed and began searching for some clothes. "Goddamn asshat, ruining my sex, putting himself in danger. Dumbass." She walked into the bathroom and slammed the door and immediately walked back into the bedroom, grabbed a flashlight and walked back into the bathroom and slammed the door again.

Her anger would be amusing if I weren't so pissed off myself. My dick hadn't wilted even a little and was quite uncomfortable. I followed Bella into the bathroom, still naked.

She was standing in the bathtub with a jug of water, pouring it over herself. The water was cold and I could see goosebumps forming all over her body. Her nipples were so hard they looked painful. I wanted to lick them.

I walked over to where she was and bent to do just that when I could hear Seth yelling to me that the others had arrived, and Jacob was with them. At that moment, I hated Jacob more than I hated the zombies. I muttered "Fuck," again and left Bella in the tub to clean herself up. I grabbed some clothes, threw them on and stormed up to the roof to greet their arrival.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

BPOV

I was hot, my lower abdomen ached from where the tension had built up, and I felt my face flush with rage. I jumped off of Edward's bed and stormed into the bathroom, muttering to myself about what an asshat Jacob was. I slammed the door, plunging myself into total darkness.

_Shit._

I stormed back out into Edward's room, grabbed the flashlight and stormed back into the bathroom. I turned it on and set it onto the counter, directing the light towards the bathtub. I needed to wash myself desperately; I could feel the moisture from my sex sticking to my thighs. With most of the people in the house having super-sensitive smelling powers, I knew I had to clean up before I left the room.

I turned on the taps before remembering that since there was no power, there was no water. The water sputtered out for a minute, then nothing. I turned the tap off with such force that I thought I was going to break it. I had to calm myself down before I did damage to the house or to myself. I took a deep breath, counted to ten and then looked around.

Edward had brought up a couple of jugs of water from the basement. Good. I needed a cold shower. I grabbed the jug, twisted the cap off and set it into the tub. After grabbing a washcloth from under the sink, I crawled into the tub and dumped some on top of me. It was colder than I expected, and my flesh constricted around my pores. Edward chose that moment to walk into the room, still naked, his hard on raging. I was still horny, but I was more mad than horny, so I ignored him and continued to wash.

I watched him watch me from the corner of my eye. He leered at me. _He leered! Pervert _I thought to myself, although it really was flattering. He stalked over to me and bent down, as though he was examining my breast closely, but then cocked his head up to the ceiling, hearing something that I couldn't. He made a screwed up face and I thought I heard him mutter the curse word that had come out of his mouth about five minutes ago. He stalked out of the room, leaving me to myself.

I poured some liquid soap onto my washcloth and began scrubbing, making sure to clean extra down below. Then I dumped the rest of the jug over my head, rinsing off. I really wanted to wash my hair, but I didn't want to waste the water. I would have to live with it for a couple more days. Ew.

By the time I got dressed and headed out of Edward's room I could hear arguing. I followed the voices into Carlisle's office.

"You stupid bloodsucker! I can't believe you didn't get them out of here. They're gonna get killed! You know how many of those things are surrounding the house? They are just gonna keep coming! How long you think it's gonna take to break through the walls?" Jake was getting up into Edward's face, pointing a finger at him. I couldn't believe how much taller he seemed.

"Listen, dog, we did what we had to do. We needed a place to stay that was safe, and there isn't another place for miles with the supplies or the structure that this place has. You think that if I thought we could escape, we would have already?" Edward shot back, not backing down at all from Jacob.

"Edward…" Alice tried to interrupt.

"What I think is that you are fucking stupid, ugly, bloodsucking leeches!" Jake yelled.

"You are just a foul-smelling, foul-mouthed mutt!" Edward yelled back.

"Edward…" Alice tried again.

Edward and Jacob were nose to nose, both of them growling deep in their chests. I could feel the air vibrate with tension. Seth and Leah ran over to Jake and tried to hold him back and while Emmett was trying to hold Edward, Jasper was attempting to send out some calm to the room, but it didn't seem to be working. I briefly considered slipping in between the two of them and trying to push them apart, but quickly realized that doing so would probably just get me killed. But I had another idea.

I looked over to Alice and she grinned at me. My idea would work. I ran back into Edward's bathroom, grabbed the other jug of water and drug it back to Carlisle's study. Jasper picked me up and I dumped the jug over the both of them. Jake began sputtering and Edward turned his murderous glare my way, but when he realized it was me who had done it, his face softened and he backed away from Jake. Jake was still coughing.

"Are you done your pissing contest yet or do I have to go and get the measuring tape?" I continued. They both just stood there gaping at me.

"But Bells, he…" Jacob started.

"He what? Saved my life? Again? Just stop your nonsense." I caught Edward smirking out of the corner of my eye. "That goes for you too, Edward. I am sick and tired of your macho bullshit. Get over it, both of you!"

"If you would like to have a serious discussion about our situation, I would suggest that we all sit down like grown-ups and chat," Carlisle said from a corner of the room. We all tried crowding into the room, but there were now 14 of us and we just couldn't all fit. There was still a lot of tension between Jake and Edward, Rose and Emmett still weren't speaking and Angela was trying to avoid Seth who was inching closer and closer to her. I looked over at Jasper and I thought he might implode from the stress.

"Er, I have a better idea. Let's see if Rose can fix the generator so that we can have some lights downstairs. Then we can meet in the living room. This just isn't going to work," Jasper suggested. Edward nodded his agreement with Jasper's suggestion.

"Very well," Carlisle said. "Rose, you and Edward go down and see if you can get the generator working. We need some water, power for the fridge and freezers and maybe the lights, if you can swing it."

Rosalie nodded and she and Edward went downstairs. The others dispersed to random points in the house. All who remained in the study was Jacob, Seth, Charlie and I. And we were all pretty mad at Jacob for some reason or another.

"Jake, dude, why did you come back? Man, you were _safe_! You could have avoided all of this!" Seth seethed. His face was crumpling and I really thought he might cry. He was one of the younger wolves, still a child really. The stress of this situation was really hard on him, perhaps harder than the rest of us, considering he lost most of his pack mates and his imprint thought he was crazy. He lowered his face into his hands and took a couple of deep breaths to compose himself. "But I am really glad to see you, man."

Jake patted Seth's back with one of his giant hands. "I'm glad to see you too, Seth. I had to come back; how could I not? People I know and love," he turned to look at me when he said that, "were in danger and needed my help. I have to at least try."

Seth and Jake stood and did some sort of man-code handshake and Seth left the room, leaving Jake with me and Charlie, who had been pretty quiet so far. I glared at Jake while he ignored me and spoke to Charlie.

"So they told you everything, did they? How do you feel about your daughter marrying a bloodsucker?" Jake said to Charlie.

I gritted my teeth and went to stand over Jake to yell at him when Charlie put a hand on my shoulder and spoke to Jake very calmly.

"Jake, as mad as I was at Edward for leaving her, I finally understand why. And right now, I am very glad that he and his family were able to save both of us. I'm not exactly thrilled that he's a vampire, but I'm not exactly jumping for joy that you're a lycanthrope either." I was really impressed that Charlie knew that word.

"But Charlie, he's planning to…" Jake started.

"And with all those zombies running around out there, I am VERY glad that neither of you are normal and will be able to protect her better than I ever can," Charlie continued, interrupting Jake's interruption. "So you might want to can the prejudice. The Clearwaters have gotten over theirs."

"He's planning to change her!" Jake yelled out before Charlie could go on.

"JACOB!" I screamed at him. He looked mighty smug sitting there looking at me. I was filled with rage. I suddenly wished I were a newborn so that I had the strength to rip him apart.

Charlie turned to me. "Bells, is that true?"

I turned my murderous glare from Jake to look at my father, who was waiting patiently for my answer. I considered how to word my answer so that it would cause Charlie the least amount of pain. How could I explain to him that I needed to be with Edward forever, that one lifetime wasn't enough? How could I explain that I was willing to give up everything, including my own father, to be with Edward? I opened my mouth a few times, trying to phrase my answer, but eventually just settled with a simple "Yes."

Charlie looked at me for a long time, not saying anything. I looked back, unable to read his expression. I wondered how many pieces I had broken his heart into.

"Jacob, leave us," Charlie said, still looking at me. Jacob, looking a little ashamed at what he had done, crawled out of the window and went up on the roof were Leah was.

"So, you were going to marry a vampire, turn into one yourself, and never see me again?"

"No, Dad. Well, I hadn't worked out all the details yet, but yes, I am going to marry a vampire, yes I am going to become one, and no, I had planned to keep in contact you. Obviously I wouldn't be able to see you or Mom until I had myself under control, but I didn't want to cut you out of my life if I didn't have to." I paused. "Assuming we get out of this alive." I went on to tell him about the dangers I had faced over the last year or so. I told him about James and Victoria and Laurent. I even told him about the would-be rapists in Port Angeles. I also told him about Italy and a little bit about the Voltouri.

When I was done, Charlie tore his gaze away from me, stood and went over to the window. He stood there and stared out. "I love you, Bells, and I just want what's best for you. But I don't know what that is anymore. Until a few days ago, I didn't know about vampires and werewolves and zombies. I didn't realize the constant danger that you were in. I couldn't have protected you from those things, even if I had known about them." He fell silent for a while and all you could hear was the constant groaning of the undead lurking outside our makeshift fortress.

"I want to speak with both you and Edward about this, but not right now. We'll put this on the backburner for now. We have bigger problems to deal with," he said.

And then the lights came on.

"Let's head downstairs. We should start planning our next move," I said, standing up and moving towards the door. "You wanna yell to Jake and Leah to come down?"

Charlie nodded and opened the window. I turned and went to head down the stairs.

***

"So, the government is considering nuclear warfare. We need a plan to get the hell out of here," Alice started the conversation off. The murmurs that followed her statement were not reassuring.

"How can we get out, though? You said that if we tried to leave the state, we would get caught or exposed," Rosalie said.

"What about by water? We could just swim away," Emmett suggested.

"Well, that would be fine for us, but we have three wolves and four humans in tow. The Navy is watching the waters very carefully. If we tried the boat, we'd be sunk," Alice said after consulting with her visions.

"Why can't we just radio the army and let them know that we are here and healthy and need help?" Charlie asked.

"I tried that already," Carlisle said. "Whomever I was speaking with told me that they would not be rescuing anyone. There was too great of a risk of being carriers. Even if they did, we would be in isolation for weeks, if not months. That would not bode well for either us vampires, or your wolves," he said pointedly at the remaining members of the pack.

"Ok, then. So we're dead. We will all be flash fried in a nuke attack. Great! Just fucking great!" Leah piped up. She was fidgety and on edge. She was clearly not comfortable with any of this conversation.

"Well, there is the bunker," Edward began.

"Yes, there is that. We would have to transport all the materials for the humans, though. It will take longer and be more of a risk for everyone. Plus we would need to capture wildlife for ourselves," Carlisle replied. "We will need lots of animals. We'll have to have some food finding missions, since you said wildlife was scarce," he said, looking over at Esme. She nodded.

"Alice, how much time do we have?" Esme asked.

"They haven't decided for sure, so it's hard to come up with a definitive time line. I wouldn't want to stay here much long than a few days, anyway, just to be on the safe side."

"What about your friends from Alaska? Do you think they could help any?" I asked, speaking up for the first time.

"I already called Tanya. They scoped out the army situation for us. They are not able to pass the border, but they can help us if we are able to get across," Rosalie said.

"Alright then. Let's work on planning our escape to the bunker. What supplies will we need?" Charlie said.

We worked for hours on escape routes and contingency plans. We would have to take all the cars, but some of them would need to be modified. We would need bedding and cooking supplies, since vampires don't eat or sleep. To save our ammo, we'd need to use the underground passage to get to the garage, where all the cars were stored.

We were giving ourselves two days to get everything packed and ready to go. Despite Alice's tendency to be over prepared, we should still be on time.

The second hunting group, which included Edward, Emmett and Carlisle, were out trying to bag some more animal blood as well as feed themselves. They were likely going to be gone most of the day. I didn't really want Edward to go, but I could see that he would need to feed before we left. I kissed him and told him I loved him before he left.

The rest of us were preparing for our trip and our stay in the bunker. I was upstairs in Carlisle's room picking out some books that I wanted to take. I suspected that we'd get pretty bored in there after a while and I wanted to do anything I could to combat the monotony. I was grabbing a thick text from one of the shelves when the constant moaning of the zombs was joined by another noise. Something was growling…no…more than one thing. Several things. My hand dropped from the bookshelf and I slowly walked over to the window. I prayed that what I heard was not what I thought it was.

I slide up next to the window and slowly peered outside. From where I stood, I could see three giant wolves, their fur matted with blood and pus. Their eyes had turned a dull red colour. The smallest of the three had a chunk of flesh torn from its shoulder and I could see part of the bone. The wound oozed with blood and some sort of green mucus-like substance.

The wolves stumbled around like they were a little bit drunk, snapping and snarling at each other when another bumped into it, but when a human zombie knocked into one of them, pandemonium broke out. The three wolves snapped to attention and tore the thing limb from limb. I was unable to tear my gaze away as one wolf ripped the throat out of the zombie while another dug through it's stomach with its teeth and claws, digging out the zombie's entrails. The third, smaller wolf grabbed onto the zombie's foot and began to shake the leg loose from its body.

"Oh, fuck!" I whispered and promptly vomited on the floor in front of me.


	9. Chapter 9

BPOV

Alice and Esme were suddenly beside me.

"Gross, Bella!" Alice said, nearly stepping in my vomit. "There is a garbage can right over there."

"Sorry," I replied, a little tartly. "I wasn't thinking about that while I was watching the wolves rip apart and eat the entrails of that zombie down there."

"Wha--?" Alice said as she moved her gaze to the window. Esme, who had been cleaning up with a towel, sprang to her feet and joined Alice at the window. She muttered something that sounded suspiciously vulgar and called the rest of the Cullen's to the study. Rosalie and Jasper suddenly appeared in the doorway. Jake, Seth and Leah followed closely behind. They all took turns peering out the window. The members of the pack who were still living lingered the longest at the window. Leah had tears in her eyes.

"Oh, that can't be good," Rosalie said as she plopped herself down on the chair furthest from the window.

"How did we not know they were in our yard?" Esme asked, moving to sit next to Rose. "How did we not recognize their scent? Or hear them?"

"Their scent is marred by the rotting zombs. They all smell the same now. Just rotting corpses. Oh, sorry guys," Jasper said to the pack who were still looking out the window. Tears were freely falling down Leah's face now and Jake's hands were pulled into fists so tight that I thought the skin would crack over his knuckles. Seth turned away from the window, pressed his back up against the wall and sunk to the ground.

Jasper continued, "As for hearing them; how could you tell one sound from another will all that moaning going on. It's a wonder we haven't gone completely bat-shit crazy."

Sue and Charlie walked into the room right then. "What the hell is going on?" Charlie demanded.

"The zombie-wolves have arrived, Dad," I said. I felt the panic bubble in my chest. Edward, Emmett and Carlisle were still out there! What if they ran into them on their hunting trip? "Oh God! What about Edward and the others?"

The Cullens passed a concerned look to one another. "Should we call them?" Alice asked.

After a moment's thought, Rosalie spoke first. "No. We aren't in immediate danger and they still need to hunt and gather some extra blood for us. If they knew, then they would abandon their trip and rush home. They haven't been gone long enough to do that."

"Yeah, but what if they've already run into them? They could be hurt. Or.." I didn't even want to finish my thought. I couldn't bear to think that Edward had been torn apart and I couldn't bear to think that a vampire could become a zombie.

Everyone looked to Esme for the answer. It was as though with Carlisle and Edward gone, she fell into place as the leader. She did not look very comfortable with this development.

"Um…I suppose it wouldn't hurt to call Carlisle. They'll need to know before they head home?" She said the last syllable with an upward infliction, as though she was asking if her decision was the right one. She looked to Jasper.

"I agree. They will need to know. As long as they realize that the need for the blood is the greatest at this moment. We are safe right now," he said.

"Alright. Alice, call Carlisle and let him know what's going on. Tell him to make sure they are done hunting and have some spare blood before they come home," Esme stated.

Alice left the room to call.

EPOV

We had just spotted a bear when Carlisle's phone vibrated.

"Yes, Alice? Oh.... Yes, I agree. We won't be home until we've gotten what we need, but you need to call if there are any changes…. Yes, that is probably a good idea. Good luck." Carlisle snapped his phone shut and turned towards us.

"The infected wolves have found their way to the house," he said.

_Shit! Shit shit shit! How am I gonna deal with this? Oh God! Zombie-fucking-werewolves! Shit shit shit!!! _Emmett was panicking. I looked over to him and he had rolled up into a ball on the forest floor. Carlisle and I ignored him for the moment and continued speaking.

"Well, what are we waiting for? We have to get back to the house!" I said.

"No Edward. They are safe right now, but we still need to feed and get some spare blood bags."

"But…"

"No buts! If we don't feed, we are just as dangerous to Bella and the rest of them as the wolves are, possibly more so," Carlisle said sternly. His foot was down. I didn't like it, but I knew he was right. Bella was safe, for the moment, and she had the protection of four vampires, three werewolves, and her father. I still wanted to be there though.

"Fine. Let's hurry and get this over with so we can go back."

"Alright then. We'll call them before we leave, so that they can be ready with the weapons. We can avoid human zombies if necessary, but the wolves are bred to kill us. I don't even want to think what they can do."

I nodded and then turned to Emmett. I had blocked out his blithering while I was speaking to Carlisle, but we would have to address him now.

"Em, you have to get up," I said and I nudged his back with my foot. He made this strange squealing sound. I knelt down on my knees in front of him. _Shitshitshitshitshit _was running through his head, and nothing else.

"Emmett, you were so brave when you saved Angela. I know you can be that way again. We'll get through this together. We're going to get the blood we need, get back to the house and then escape to the shelter. We need your help. You need to get up and help us," Carliele said to him. His hand clawed the dirt and there was a wild look in his eyes.

"Emmett, come on. We need your help. We can't do this without you," I said.

After a moment, he finally sat up. "Ok," he said and I helped him up off the ground. "Ok. I can do this. Let's get what we need and get it over with."

I clapped him on the back and the three of us ran off to catch some animals.

BPOV

"Ok, everyone, we need to get all the weapons we can together. The boys will be back in a couple of hours and we'll all have to help if we want them to get through," Alice said to the group gathered in the living room. "Jacob, do you think one of you could phase and see if you can tell what's going on in their minds?"

Jake looked haggard. He had dark circles under his eyes, which were bloodshot. He looked as though he had been crying. His head hung low and his shoulders were hunched over. He looked as though the weight of the world was on his back. "Yeah, I'll phase."

"No, Jake! Let me, I'll…" Seth began, but Jake stopped him.

"No, Seth. I'm the Alpha. And…and I need to know if…if…there is anything left...you know?"

Seth hung his head. Angela, who was sitting across the room watching him, looked like she was going to get up, but she seemed to change her mind and settled back down. Leah gave her a look that I couldn't place and put her arm around Seth.

Jake stood. "Where do you want me to do this?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure Charlie and Angela would freak out if they saw this."

Charlie, who was sitting next to Sue and me, looked a little green at the thought, but Angela looked curious.

"I wouldn't mind seeing it," Angela nearly whispered. Seth shot his head up and his face was a mix of emotions, the main one being hope. When he told her about the imprint, she freaked out. I knew she had been avoiding Seth, but I thought I had heard Sue in talking to her. I hoped that she would come around. I know she was still grieving, but we were in a desperate situation and she needed someone to lean on the way I leaned on Edward and Seth would fit that role perfectly. Because, like it or not, he was made for her.

"Uh..okayyyy…" Jake said. He looked over to Charlie, who just shrugged.

"Alight then," he said. He moved so that he was behind the couch and began to take off his clothes. Angela's got a little wider, but I thought her eyes were going to fall out of her head when the air began to shimmer and bend as the fur seemed to roll out of Jake's skin and his nose pulled away from his face as his snout formed.

"Oh. My. God," Angela said as Jake's hulking wolf form now stood before us. He looked over to me and then to Angela. I took the hint and dragged her over to where he stood.

"Can…can I touch him?" she asked. She was in complete awe.

"Sure," I said and I ran my fingers through the fur on his back. He made a grumbling sound in his throat and looked up at me. She followed my lead.

Seth got up off the couch and stood next to us. "See, it's not so bad," he said softly, while she continued to run her hand though his coarse hair.

"Seth, I…I'm sorry," she said. "I…"

BANG

"What the hell was that?" I asked to no one in particular.

Jake began moving away from us and towards the door. He growled a low menacing growl. _**BANG! **_Jake snarled this time.

Rose ran upstairs and then back down again before I even knew she was gone. "The wolves are trying to break in," she said.

For one split second no one moved. We all stood looking at each other dumbly, with genuine fear on all of our faces. Angela whimpered and Seth put his arm around her to steady her.

BANG BANG!

"Guns," Charlie said and everyone in the room jumped into action.

Most of the weapons were kept in the kitchen; Jasper and Rosalie made it their first, with the rest of us, excluding Jake, who was still in his wolf form, close behind. I grabbed Charlie's shotgun, while he took his pistol. Rose grabbed the bow and arrow set and Jasper the crossbow. There were various other weapons; some guns, some swords, and even a handful of throwing stars. Everyone grabbed something, except for Angela, who said she didn't know how to use anything.

"I'll keep her with me," said Seth, who had grabbed an extra shotgun and some shells. Angela nodded.

The banging continued and just as we walked back into the livingroom to head up the stairs, Jake barked and the door splintered inwards and a giant black wolf leaped into the center of the room. He whipped his head to the side and set his sights on Leah, who happened to be the closest to him. He snarled and made a quick step over to her before she could even raise her gun.

"NO!" screamed Sue as Sam opened his massive jaw and tore part of Leah's leg and lower abdomen away. Leah fell to the ground screaming as the zombie-wolf began devouring her, tearing away her flesh, leaving a puddle of blood and innards on the carpet.

Charlie caught hold of his senses first, raised his pistol and fired at Sam. His aim was true and Sam dropped to the ground, falling on top of Leah. He lowered his aim to Leah's head and shot her too, so she wouldn't rise as a zomb.

I tore my gaze away from the mass on the floor and looked towards the door. The noise had attracted the attention of the other zombs and the wolves.

"Shit," Jasper said and raised his crossbow.


	10. Chapter 10

It was like watching a slow-motion replay. I stood motionless as the arrow flew from Jasper's crossbow, whipped past Esme and Rosalie as they ducked out of the way, through the open door, and into the eye of the smaller wolf who I had seen from the window upstairs; the one with the chunk torn from his shoulder. The zombie-wolf's eye seemed to implode as it withered in its socket and pus and blood began to ooze from the wound. It dropped to the ground, dead.

I heard Sue screaming and I turned to see Charlie holding her back from Leah's (thankfully) lifeless body while trying to keep an eye on the door. Seth was pushing Angela up the stairs and Jake was making his way over to me, still in his wolf form.

"Bella, Charlie, Sue! You need to get upstairs with Seth and Ang and start picking off the human zombies from a window," Alice screamed at us while loading her weapon. "Jake, you should go, too, and change back into human form. You can't help us down here, you'll just get bit." Jacob snarled at her, but came with me as we ran towards the stairs. Two more wolves were at the doorway, fighting with each other while trying to squeeze through at the same time.

Jasper grabbed me before we made it to the stairs. "There is an emergency exit in my and Esme's closets, in the back and another somewhere in Carlisle's study, behind one of the bookshelves. Use them if you get trapped, they lead to the basement. We'll make our way down there and head for the tunnel to the garage," he said. "Now go!" He let go of me and I ran. I could hear a gunshot and then Charlie say "Shit," as he missed his target. He and Sue ran up after me.

At the landing on the second flight, we decided to split up. "Seth and Angela; you two head into Alice and Jasper's room, there," I said pointing to the room. "Dad, you and Sue go in Carlisle and Esme's room. Jake and I will head to Carlisle's study. Dad, I love you. Good luck!" Charlie gave me a tight hug and then grabbed Sue and headed towards their designated room.

There was a large crash downstairs and I turned to head back down, but Jake nudged me with his massive head and I reluctantly lead the way into Carlisle's study. I opened the window and took position.

"Jake, you might want to change back," I said as I aimed and took fire at a human zombie outside. "We're gonna need your help and you can't exactly do anything in your wolf form."

He huffed and he puffed for a minute, but then the air started to shimmer as his fur rolled back up into his body and his four legs became two. He was naked and none of us had thought to grab his clothes. I flushed a little bit, trying not to stare at him. He gave me a look as if to say 'Deal with it' so I did my best to ignore his nakedness and turned my attention back to the mess outside.

I could head shots being fired from all angles of the house and I fired a few more of my own. I had downed three zombs and Jake, who was using a slingshot and pellets that he had found among Carlisle's things, had downed two. We were waiting intently for another zomb to cross our path when we hear a commotion on the stairs.

I heard a wolf growl and Jasper shouted "Everyone get out! Now!"

"Shit," I gasped. I could hear the snarling of something getting closer. Jake and I ran over to the bookshelf and began pulling books off to locate the secret passageway.

"Oh fuck! Why didn't we do this before?" Jake growled, flinging books behind him at a furious pace.

"Because we're stupid, apparently," I replied, moving a little slower than he was.

We were at least smart enough to have closed the door to the study, I thought in relief, as there was a giant thud on the other side of it. The thing on the other side snarled and clumsily thudded against the door again. The door splintered and cracked. One more hit and it would be in the room with us.

"Shit!" I squealed.

Finally, Jake located the switch and the passage opened up just as the zombie-wolf crashed into the room. We ran inside and the passage closed behind us, leaving us to stumble around in the dark. We could hear it pawing and scratching at the bookshelf.

"I hope that thing doesn't accidentally find the switch," I whispered to Jake.

"Shhh!" he said the put his hand over my mouth. "It can still hear us."

I shut my mouth and we began to make our way through the tunnel. I made Jacob lead as he had a better sense of direction and could see a little better than I could in the dark. I stumbled several times, but we finally made it into a secret room in the basement. This room, at least, had a light switch, and Jake turned it on. There was another door opposite the one we came through and when we managed to get it open, we could see there was a tunnel; the one leading to the garage, I assumed. No one else had come through, yet.

"Where is everyone?" I asked. I was feeling panicky. At least some of the rest of us should have been here by now.

Jake listened for a moment and then said, "Charlie and Sue are almost here. Seth and Angela aren't far behind them. I don't know where the bloodsuck—I mean the Cullens are." He said, digging through the boxes of old supplies. He pulled out a pair of shorts and put them on. They were way too small, and he looked like a gay go-go dancer the way his ass was hanging out of them, but it was better than staring at his peen.

"Why can't you tell where the Cullens are?" I asked. The adrenaline was beginning to wear off on me and I started shaking. I sat before I could fall over.

"The room we are in must be sound proof. It looks like an old bomb shelter. It's muffling the sounds of the rest of the house. I can't tell what's going on."

Sue and Charlie appeared just then and we hugged each other in relief. Seth and Ang followed suit and we sat for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do.

"I think we should wait for them," I said.

"They are vampires, for Christ's sake. They can look after themselves. We need to go!" Jake said.

"Go where?" Charlie piped up. "If that leads to the garage and cars, we still don't have any keys. You gonna hot wire something for us, Jake?"

"I could," Jake said proudly.

"Me too," said Seth.

Charlie looked back and forth between the two of them, unsure how to react. His cop side was furious that a couple of teen boys knew how to hotwire cars. The practical side looked grateful that we had this option.

"How long does it take to hotwire a car, Seth," Sue asked.

"Er, it depends on the car. If Emmett's jeep is there, we will want to take that. It shouldn't be that complicated. Bella, is your car in the garage? We'll need two cars for us, at least and yours is armoured."

"No," I said. "My car is parked at home. Edward and Carlisle carried us over here."

"Shit," Seth said. "What other cars to they have?"

"Umm, Edward's Volvo, Rose's BMW, Emmett's Jeep, Carlisle's Mercedes, Alice's Porche and, uh, Edward's Harley," I replied, listing the cars off with my fingers.

"Edward's got a Harley?" asked Seth and both he and Jake looked longingly off into the distance.

"Yeah, ok. Back to task," Angela said.

"Ok, we'll take the Jeep and the Mercedes. We'll have to clear the garage first, if there are zombies there. If not, you and Jake take a car each and the rest of us will stand guard," Charlie said, taking charge of the plan.

"Um, does anyone know where we are going once we have the cars going? We need a backup plan if the Cullens aren't there. And what about the rest of them? Edward, Emmett and Dr. Cullen? Shouldn't we wait for them?" Angela asked.

"I know where to go," Alice said coming down through the passage. I jumped up to hug her, but she was covered in blood and gore. Her hair, always so neat and styled, was messy and clumped with chunks of fur and blood. Her clothes were torn. I gagged and stepped away from her.

"Good Lord, Alice! Are you ok?" Charlie asked in concern.

"Yes, I'm fine. We're all still ok. The wolves are very strong; stronger than we had anticipated, given their rate of decay. And there are more of them than we knew about. Jacob, how many were in your pack?" Alice asked, turning to the now-Alpha.

Jake hung his head. "There were close to twenty of us," he said. "The youngest was Jordan. He was 10. Because of you vampers, the youth of La Push have been reaching puberty at a much earlier age."

"Yeah," Seth spoke up. "We had five new pack members in the span of a week. That was not fun."

Alice nodded solemnly and continued on. "The others are outside. It was getting too cramped in the house and they kept coming in. Anyway, I came down here to check on you and I heard most of your plan so I ran back up and got the keys, so you don't have to hotwire them. We'll get out to the garage, grab as many supplies as we can and get the cars moving. I called Carlisle and they are on their way back. I tried to convince them to just meet us at the bunker site, but Edward nearly had a shit fit. We'll try to wait for them, but if they aren't here by the time we need to leave, we have set up a rendezvous spot along the highway."

I was relived to hear that Edward was still ok and out of this mess, although, as selfish as I am, I wished he were here with me.

"Ok, then. Let's get moving," Jake said.


	11. Chapter 11

The garage had not been broken into and I was very thankful for that, since I happened to be the first one through the trapdoor. How I ended up leading the way, I wasn't too sure, but it worked out in the end, so I tried not to dwell on it.

"It's clear, guys," I whispered. I couldn't hear any noise coming from outside except the melee going on near the house. It didn't sound like it was right outside, but being quiet seemed like a pretty good idea.

I crawled up through the door with the rifle in hand and moved to stand beside the door. I peeked out while the others came up through the trap. There was nothing in my sights. I motioned for Charlie to come stand with me to guard the door while the others began to pack up the cars. I glanced over to Alice, who was putting an extra gas can in each of the vehicles. I never would have thought of that.

I turned my head to look back out the window when I felt Edward's phone vibrate in my pocket. Alice came rushing over.

"Who is it? Is it Carlisle?" she asked a little too loudly. She looked haggard. Not being able to see the future was beginning to take its toll on her. She had crazy-eyes.

I looked at the screen. "It's Renee," I replied as quietly as I could. "Should I answer it?" I really wanted to talk to her, but now wasn't exactly the best time. But what if I didn't get another chance?

"Go ahead," Alice replied, "But sit in one of the cars so that your voice is as muffled as possible."

I got into the closest car to me, which happened to be Carlisle's Mercedes, and shut the door.

"Hello, Mom," I said when I answered.

"Bella? Oh thank God, baby! I've been so worried. I just found out yesterday. Are you ok?"

"I'm ok right now…er, wait. If you found out yesterday, why didn't you call then?"

"Oh, I was helping a friend with something. I meant to call as soon as she told me what was going on, but we got talking about some other things, and well…You know how it is, Bella."

_Yeah, sure, whatever, Renee._

"Sure Mom. No problem. Anyway, I'm kinda busy right now and…"

"Oh Bella, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt anything with your handsome man!"

I sighed, getting ready to explain what was going on, but decided against it. She wouldn't understand and I didn't have the patience to get into it with her.

"Ok, Mom. I have to go. I love you," I said. I hoped it wouldn't be the last time I talked to her, but I had a feeling that it would be. "I…I'm glad your happy."

"Oh, Honey! I love you too. You and Edward will have to come and see me this Thanksgiving. I miss your cooking."

"Sure Mom," I said as silent tears fell from my eyes. I would probably never see my mother again and even though she wasn't the greatest mother, she was my mom and I loved her. "We'll try to make it up there."

I hung up the phone and wept quietly in the backseat of Carlisle's car. Alice opened the door and slide in beside me and put her arm around my shoulders. I leaned into her and tried to get my breathing under control. None of us could afford to lose it right now.

After a few deep breaths, I wiped my eyes, grabbed my gun and stepped out. The cars were packed and it was time to go. This was the hard part. We had to somehow get Jasper, Rosalie and Esme away from the wolves and into the cars. Then we had to outrun the wolves and meet up with Edward, Emmett and Carlisle.

"Jake," I said, "How fast do you think those things can run?"

Jake and Seth looked at each other for a minute. "We're pretty fast. We have to be to catch a bloodsucker. But I don't know about those things. I doubt they feel pain or tiredness. But they are decomposing, so that might slow them down." He looked a little doubtful, though.

I opened my mouth to suggest that the Cullen's drive us out of here when Alice motioned for us to be quiet. In the silence, we could hear something shuffling around outside. Charlie slowly backed away from the door, keeping his pistol raised. A human zombie walked by the door and glanced in. It immediately began to moan and paw at the door. Another one joined it and soon all you could see out the window was zombies.

"Shit! They're gonna bring the wolves!" Charlie cursed to himself. "Should we start shooting?"

Alice closed her eyes and tried desperately to see into the future, but when she opened them, she had no answers. "I..uhh.."

Jake answered," No. Let's all just get in the cars and get the fuck out of here."

"Sounds good," Charlie said and we all piled into the designated cars; Charlie and Sue in the Mercedes, Seth and Angela in the Jeep and Jake, Alice and I in Edward's Volvo.

The zombies had broken through the glass in the door when Alice yelled, "Wait!" She jumped out of the car and flew to a cupboard over in the back and gave each car something before jumping back into our car. "Walkie Talkies," she said. "Since not everyone has a cell phone. We'll need to keep in touch."

"Good idea, Alice," Charlie said. "Can we go now?"

"Ok. Start your engines, everyone!"

The garage doors opened.

****


	12. Chapter 12

EPOV

_Five minutes. We'll be there in just five more minutes. _I heard Carlisle's thoughts as we raced through the woods. We were all desperate to get back to the house and help. Even Emmett seemed to be snapped out of his fear.

"Edward, are we close enough that you can see what's going on?" Carlisle asked me.

"Yes. Bella and the others, along with Alice, are getting ready to leave the garage. Jasper, Rose and Esme are on the roof trying to distract the wolves from the garage so that they can escape, but I can see from Esme that it's not going to work. The human zombies have the garage surrounded and are making a fuss, catching the wolves attention. The wolves were faster than we all anticipated and have been able to dodge most of the ammo. There are still 6 wolves left and the three of them are out of ammo," I said, my mind catching as much information as I could from the others. I wished that I could read Bella's mind more than I thought possible at this moment. I knew that she was ok, for the moment, but I needed to hear her.

_Four minutes._

"Alice has opened the garage doors, now. The wolves are blocking the exit. The human zombies have broken into the garage from the back and a few have slipped in beside the wolves and are banging on the windows of the cars. Oh God!" I said, trying to make myself run faster.

"Edward, what about Rose?" Emmett asked in near panic. I could completely understand his fear. All of our mates were in danger. But mine was much more breakable than his was. Rose could take care of herself.

"Rosalie is fine. Jasper and Esme are planning to rush the wolves the take them out by hand. Rose isn't pleased with that plan, but doesn't see another option."

_We're taking too long!_ Emmett thought to himself. Carlisle's thoughts were pretty similar, but also laced with guilty sentiments.

My fault. All my fault. How could I have been so arrogant? I've destroyed so many lives with my arrogance. I've got to make this right. When we get to the lab, I'll fix it.

"Focus, Carlisle. We have to help our family first," I said to him.

Yes, Edward. Thank you.

_Three minutes._

BPOV

"Holy. Fucking. Shit." I said staring at a bunch of giant zombie wolves out of the windshield of the car I was in. "We are all going to die."

"Yeah, probably," said Alice grimly. I looked over at her. I had kind of hoped that she would give me some optimism, like she always did, even if she was lying. But from the look on her face, she looked as hopeless as I felt.

The walkie-talkie I was holding crackled in my hand. "What the fuck do we do?!" Seth said into the mike.

"Uhh…"I started before Alice grabbed the thing from my hand.

"We floor it. We have to get out of here and there is no other way," she said. "The Jaz, Esme and Rose will help as much as they can."

I looked over at the other cars and saw the incredulous looks from the others of our group. Alice looked over too.

"Well, does anyone else have a better idea?" she asked into the mike.

Charlie just shrugged. No one else made any moves, besides the human zombies that were pounding on the windows of the cars. The one closest to me was missing most of its jaw and its shirt was torn so that its breasts were exposed. Well, one breast, anyway. It looked as though the other one had been ripped off.

"Alright then. Let's go," Alice said as she flung the walkie-talkie back at me and floored the gas.

The sun had peaked through the clouds and momentarily blinded me as we flew from the garage, so I didn't see the wolf as it rammed into Alice's side of the car. The force of the hit caused us to roll once, but we somehow managed to land back on the wheels and kept going. I looked over to see where the others were, but there were too many obstacles in my way, mainly zombies.

EPOV

Two minutes…Just two more minutes…

BPOV

We didn't get very far before another wolf blocked out exit by jumping on top of the hood of the car. The weight crushed the front end causing the motor to smoke.

"Shit!" I screamed. I lifted the shotgun and fired. It wasn't an exact hit, but it was enough to blow most of its muzzle off. I went to fire again, but the wolf was suddenly gone from sight.

"Where--," I started.

"Jasper got it," Alice said tensely.

"Is he--."

"He's ok. He got it. One more down. Five left," Jacob said.

A human zombie tried to reach into the front where my bullet had shattered the glass. I screeched and pulled the trigger. I blew its head off.

Seth's car swerved in front of ours, rolling over another zombie. "Get in!" Angela yelled.

I wasn't too keen on leaving the safety of the car we were in, but if I thought about it, it really wasn't all that safe anymore. The three of us got out of the car and ran over to Seth's. Of course, another wolf, which Esme had been trying to lead away from us, saw us and we were targeted as easier prey. I recognized it as Embry…or what used to be Embry.

"Aw, fuck," Jake said as he and Alice got to my side to shield me from the wolf. It was unnecessary though, as Rosalie leapt to our rescue this time. She tackled the wolf to the ground and began wrestling with it, trying to keep its giant maw away from her hardened flesh. Jasper and Esme came to help and together, they were able to take down the wolf.

Rosalie stood and brushed some dirt off of her hands. "Ok," she said. "Where are the other three?"

EPOV

One more minute…

BPOV

"Bella, we've got to get back into a car. There are more," Alice said as she began pulling me towards Seth's car. I didn't complain as I started trotting towards the car. I was just pulling on the door handle when I happened to glance up to take in the damage.

Most of the human zombies were destroyed. Between Charlie's sharp-shooting and the Cullen's, there were only a few left in the area. They weren't my immediate concern though. Rose was. She had somehow moved away from the rest of the group and her back was facing the forest edge. Two of the remaining wolves had emerged from the forest right behind her.

"Rose!" I yelled, but it was too late. The wolves had gotten a hold of her and pushed her to the ground. I stood there and watched as one wolf grabbed Rosalie's arm and pulled it from her body, tearing flesh and ligaments, making this high screaming sound. Or maybe that was actually Rosalie screaming. Either way, it was awful.

"ROOOOSSSSEEEE!!!!" I could hear Emmett scream as he came running towards her, but not fast enough. The other wolf grabbed her torso and bite a huge chunk from her side. The wolf that had ripped her arm off went for her neck and beheaded her. I felt the bile leave my stomach and journey into my throat as her fluid spilled from what remained of her neck.

"EEEEEAAAAARRRRRRHHHHHHH!!!!" Emmett's war cry could be heard for miles and he leapt from the edge of the yard onto the wolf that had torn her head off. My jaw dropped as I watched him open the wolf's mouth and tear both jaws from the wolf's body. He reached into its throat and pulled its stomach out from its body, releasing the pieces of Rose's body it had swallowed. In his fury, he tore the creature in two. Of course, being a zombie wolf, it was still alive until Emmett cracked open the things skull like an egg and pulverized its brain with his bare hands.

Edward was dealing with the other wolf. His rage was not as complete as Emmett's, and he dealt with it in a much less messy way. He simply twisted the thing's head off and crushed his skull with his foot. He looked up at me as I was watching him, and his face turned from rage to horror.

"Bella!!" he yelled, but before I could turn around, two wolves slammed to the ground just behind me. I turned to watch the smaller wolf bite Jake on the shoulder.

"NO! JAKE!" I screamed as Edward flew over to where we were and ripped the zombie wolf off of Jake and destroyed it. "Oh God, Jake!" I knelt beside him, wanting to help, but not knowing what to do. I couldn't touch him, as he bled over the already stained lawn.

Edward joined me beside Jake, as did Carlisle and Seth.

Carlisle examined him, but there was really no need. We all knew what was going to happen. Jake threw up then turned his giant wolf head to look at Edward and then me.

"He wants us to kill him," Edward said, looking into his thoughts.

"What? No! We can't…" I wept.

"Bella, he doesn't want to become as his brothers did. We can't let this happen to him. It's not right."

"But…but…Oh Jake!" I cried relentlessly. Tears fell on top of him, making his fur damp.

Carlisle spoke up. "Jacob, I don't have enough drugs to overdose you and we don't have time to get more. How do you want to do this?" Carlisle knew the skinny and was being as clinical about it as possible, but I could see the emotion on his face. He didn't want to do this either.

"He says to just shoot him." Edward said. "It's the quickest and easiest way."

By now, everyone except Emmett and Jasper were around Jake's body; they were trying to piece Rose back together.

"So, um, how do we do this? I mean, do we draw straws or something?" Seth asked. He looked at his fallen brother with tears streaming down his face. I noticed that both Sue and Angela had their arms around him. Seth was now the last of his kind.

"No need. Everyone, go back to the cars. I'll be there soon." Carlisle said, standing and taking one of the rifles.

Edward stood and made to help me up, but I stayed where I was. "I…I have to do it, Carlisle. Give me the gun please." I said. How could I let one of the Cullens do it? It was like the ultimate mortification for Jake. If I were Jake, I would want me to do it.

"Bella…"Edward started, but I cut him off.

"No, Edward. Please go back to the car. I'll be there soon."

"Bell…"

"No, Edward! Go!" I would not be persuaded otherwise. Jake was my best friend, and even though I chose Edward, I still loved him. In another life, we would have been meant to be. I had to release him. It was right.

"Edward, it's ok. I'll be with her and make sure that everything goes ok." Carlisle said, placing his hand on Edward's shoulder.

Edward looked at Jacob for a long time and then turned to me. "Jacob loves you." He said and then turned to walk back to the cars.

I watched as he disappeared from sight then turned back to Jake. He saved my life, yet again. How could I do this? How was I going to kill the man who loved me and saved me more times than I could count? Tears and mucus streamed down my face as I blubbered out my last words to him.

"I love you too, Jake."

He vomited again and turned to look at me. His eyes were changing, taking on a yellowish ting around the irises. He growled at me and began to rise to his feet. I felt Carlisle tense beside me and I knew I only had seconds. I raised the rifle, released the safety and pulled the trigger.

Jake was no more. I fell to my knees and screamed.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

BPOV

I stared out the window for a while during the drive to the bunker, trying not to remember shooting my best friend's face off. I failed miserably. I vividly remembered raising the rifle and pulling the trigger. I remember the way the bullet entered Jake's eye socket, disintegrating his eye and blowing the top off of his skull. I remember the way the gray matter of his brain spilled out as his lifeless body slumped to the wet, bloodied ground.

Edward tried to get me to talk to him for about the first ten minutes of the ride, until Alice called him from one of the other cars and told him to stop harassing me. I barely even noticed, though. It was just a buzzing in the background of my grief. Emmett's escalating yelling, however, shook me from my self-induced coma.

"Why the fuck not, Carlisle?"

"Emmett, she was torn apart by the zombie wolves. We don't know how that will affect her when she is put back together. I'd rather not find out in a car, especially with Bella sitting right there!" Carlisle shot back, speaking in a tone I had never heard him use before.

"But…"

"No buts, Emmett. This is going to have to wait until we reach the bunker and I have the equipment to deal with this. I also want to make sure we can subdue her in case…" he trailed off.

"In case what, Carlisle?" Emmett said, shooting daggers into the back of Carlisle's head.

"In case she's a zombie, Emmett," Carlisle said, slowly, as if Emmett were simple.

I looked over to Emmett, who was cradling a small piece of Rosalie's body. It might have been her left hand, as I could see the shine of one of her rings glinting off the glass. The rest of her parts were in the trunk, separated by plastic bags. Carlisle and Edward had wanted all of her body to go in the trunk as well, but Emmett would not hear of it. They finally conceded when Rosalie's body hadn't reanimated the way everyone else's had. However, she was a vampire torn apart. Her random pieces still moved, trying to find one another to put itself back together. I flinched when her hand moved in Emmett's.

I returned my gaze to my window and watched as the scene passed by. There weren't as many zombies out as I thought there would be. From the horror movies I had seen, I figured that there would be hoards of them blocking our path, but the drive remained relatively smooth. Occasionally, we would see one or two, but unless they were directly in our way, we left them alone. Only one had tried to chase us but Charlie, from the car behind us, took it out with his pistol.

"How long have we been driving?" I asked, shocking everyone in the car. Even Carlisle jumped a little.

"We've been on the road almost two hours, love. We'll be there in a few minutes," Edward replied.

I nodded and tried to shake myself out of my stupor. As upset as I was over Jake, there were more immediate concerns, mainly Rosalie's thumping body in the trunk.

"Er, Carlisle? She's getting pretty restless in there," Edward said after a leg had kicked the back of his seat and he shot forward about a foot.

He nodded and picked up the radio. "Alice can you see anything?" he asked.

"No Carlisle, nothing."

"Ok, when we get there, you need to take Bella and the rest and hide them deep in the bunker. The rooms furthest away from the lab. You know which ones I mean?"

"Yes."

"Good. The rest of us will need to stay above ground with us while we piece Rose back together. Everyone got that?" Carlisle asked.

"Yes, Carlisle," answered everyone in the other cars.

We pulled up to a small, rocky field with small hills that rolled along the horizon. The first thing we all saw was a door standing in the middle of a blown out hill. There were dozens of dead rats littered in front of the hillside, and an ATV was sitting nearby.

"Well, that doesn't look good," Jasper said, walking up to the pile of rubbish. "Hey, some of these rats smell infected."

"But they aren't animated. Carriers, perhaps?" Edward said, poking a couple with his toe.

"Gross, dude," Seth said. He hung back near Angela, who had the same look of disgust on her face as Seth did.

"Ok, so where do we go, then," I asked.

"Well, the plan had been to have you humans go to the lower levels of the bunker, but I think we'll have to think of something else. We don't know what other damage was done in there. There might be more infected rats," Carlisle said, inspecting the damage of the side of the hill.

I looked over to Emmett, who was removing the pieces of Rosalie from the trunk of the car we were in. "Well, do something with them, cause I'm going to start fixing Rose."

"Em…,' Edward started, but he must of heard something in Emmett's thoughts, cause his sentence died in his throat. "Uh, yeah, Emmett's right. We really should make sure they're safe. And soon." Emmett had already pieced together a leg to her torso and was licking the wound so it would stitch faster.

Carlisle sighed. "Ok, Alice and Jasper, you guys do a quick sweep of the internal structure, make sure there are no infected rats and that nothing else is blown apart. Esme, help Emmett. Everyone else, stand guard." He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like pom pom, but I didn't think that was right.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Pipe bomb. The hill was blown apart by a pipe bomb."

"A pipe bomb shouldn't have caused that much damage. The lab was built to withstand a nuclear blast!" Esme shrieked from where she was helping Emmett. She was holding an unidentifiable chunk of flesh. She looked a little embarrassed. I wondered if she had designed the shelter.

Jasper and Alice appeared just then. "There is a huge crack in the door leading to the shelter," Jasper said. "We can't stay here. We can hear more rats inside anyway."

"Fuck!" We were all quite shocked to hear that word come from Carlisle's mouth. In nothing more than a blur, he kicked the standing door down.

Edward looked at me and then walked over to Carlisle.

EPOV

"Carlisle, it's ok. It's not your fault," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. I could hear his guilt in his thoughts. I looked over at Jasper and noticed him wincing and moving away from everyone.

Yes it is, Edward! I created the zombies with my experiments. The proof is all around us. Look at these damn rats! God forgive me! He sat down on a rock and placed his head in his hands.

I sat down next to Carlisle. He had been doing experiments that he really had no business doing, but how could I blame him? He had been doing such experiments for a long time, and had even found some treatments for human illnesses, although the real reason was to see if he could save our kind. I never thought he'd succeed, but I never saw any harm in what he was doing. Besides, there were other forces at work here.

"Carlisle, listen to me. You are not the one who blew the side of the hill out and it wasn't your fault that the shelter's structure failed."

"But I created the disease."

There was nothing I could say.

BPOV

I was sitting on the hood of one of the cars with Angela beside me and Seth sat behind us both with his back against the windshield. Sue was leaning against the driver's side door and Charlie remained vigil, scanning the horizon for threats. All of the vampires were otherwise occupied.

"Ok, so the bunker is out. As far as we know, they are still planning to nuke us, and since we are all human, we can't get out of the fucking state. Now what?" Seth said as he started at the gloomy, darkening sky.

"We need to know three things: Where we are, where we are going, and how the fuck we're going to get there," I said.

"Did we bring a map?" Angela asked.

Sue began digging through the glove boxes and in the trunks of the cars. She finally found one. We jumped off the hood of the car and laid the map out. All us humans crowded around.

"So, it looks like we're about here," Sue said, pointing to a point just south of Lake Pleasant. "We probably won't get to Canada this way." She ran her hand north to the waterway between Washington and British Columbia.

"Well, chances are we won't be able to get past the border into Montana or Oregon, unless it's through the mountains, but that would take too long with this many humans," Seth added.

"So, it looks like the ocean might be the best choice. So we need to head west," Angela said.

"It's going to get real dark real soon. We're not going to be able to get too far in the dark and we want to be secure for the night. We also don't want to be somewhere heavily populated. I'm going to suggest we head for Lake Ozette," Charlie said. "I know of a back road that starts not too far from here. It'll take a little over a hour to get there."

"Hey Alice! Can you see anything?" I yelled over to her. She and Jasper had moved away and were sitting on a ridge about a football field away.

"No, nothing," she said, appearing before me a moment later. "Why? Do we have a plan?"

"We're going to head to Lake Ozette. We can decide where to go from there, but we'll be a little closer to an exit, no matter how blocked off it is," I said.

"We're going to have to leave soon, though. How much longer before the big one gets his woman back together? And is she going to be a threat to us?"

"It won't be much longer. It looks like they have her altogether. Hopefully she'll wake up soon. She's going to need to feed, though." She paused. "Carlisle, Edward, I think it would be a good idea to have the humans start going now. They probably shouldn't be around when Rose wakes up. She'll either be thirsty or a zombie and neither situation is a good idea for them to be around."

Edward was at my side in an instant. He kissed me softly then wound his hand around my waist. "I agree, Alice. I'll go with them and make sure they're safe."

"Um, no, Edward. We need you here to help control Rosalie, if she needs it," Carlisle said.

"But..," Edward started.

"Uh, too late, guys!" Emmett said from across the field. "She's wakin' up!"

Edward and Alice and Seth took a protective stance around us, while Carlisle, Jasper and Esme stood in front of Rosalie. Emmett was still kneeling next to her and had his hands clasping her wrists.

There was silence. And then she opened her eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

BPOV

"Rose? Babe?" Emmett asked, gently nudging his wife, drawing her attention to him. She turned her head and stared at him for what seemed to be a long time.

Esme knelt down next to Rosalie. "Rose, honey, how do you feel?"

Rosalie looked down at herself, watching her scars healing. "Emmett? Why the fuck am I naked?"

Seth roared with laughter and everyone else sighed in relief. Emmett smiled, stripped off his shirt and covered his wife and then helped her stand. Carlisle went over to her to check her over. Alice went to the trunk of one of the cars to find Rosalie some new clothes.

"Rose, how do you feel? Do you have much pain?" I could hear Carlisle asking Rosalie from behind one of the cars.

"I'm sore, and the scars itch, but I think I'm ok," she replied. "I'm thirsty though. I should hunt."

"Can you wait? We need to get moving before dark and I don't want to be separated."

"Yeah, I can probably wait. I'm not ravenous. Where are we going?"

"We're heading to Ozette Lake. It's close to the ocean and there is a small population, so we shouldn't be completely overrun by zombies," Edward replied. "We'll spend the night there and let the humans get some rest and then we've got to get out of here."

A single shot rang out. While we were all paying attention to Rosalie, we momentarily forgot that there were hoards of zombies waiting to munch on our flesh. Charlie had felt something brush against his leg and turned to find a zombie that had somehow managed to creep past all of the humans, vampires and werewolf and get close enough to reach for his foot (The zombie was nothing more than part of a torso, head, one full arm and one part—it's entire lower half was missing)

"Ok, folks," he said, wiping his hands on the legs of his pants. "It's getting dark, it's starting to rain and there will be more of those things coming soon. We need to get our asses in gear."

We had another quick look at the map, got into the cars and drove away.

***

The drive to Ozette Lake was the longest hour and a half of my life. Once it started raining in earnest, the sky was nearly black by 6pm. The drivers went as fast as they could, but the road was pitted and unpaved, full of potholes and mud pits. The car I was in got stuck twice, and both times when we had to stop and the Cullens picked up the car to move it, we could hear the awful moan of zombies in the woods. One got close enough that I felt the need to shoot it, but I missed its head. It barely slowed it down. Edward took my rifle and finished it off for me.

By the time we drove up to the cottage road leading to the lake, we humans were exhausted and we stank.

"I need a fucking shower," Seth said over the mic. "The place that we pick better have running water."

"I second that," I replied, looking for a cottage that might suit us all. Carlisle brought up the option of splitting us up and staying in separate cottages, but most of us didn't think that was a very good idea.

Ohhh! Look at that place! It's perfect!" Alice squealed over the mic. We looked up to our right at the giant cottage with the rod-iron fence in front of it. The cottage was huge; so big that I couldn't rightfully call it a cottage. It was bigger than our house in Forks and it might have been bigger than the Cullen's place. It was certainly close.

"That is one nice cottage," Charlie whistled.

"Yo, Psychic Boy. Can you hear any brains working around there?" Seth had grabbed the mic away from Alice.

"There are a few zombies mulling around here somewhere. But no more than a handful. We'll have to be careful," Edward answered back. "And don't call me Psychic Boy, you stanky mutt!"

Everyone laughed for a moment before Emmett got on the horn. "Alright peeps, lets make this quick and dirty. I'll jump out, break the lock and open the gate and you all drive in. Then I will jig the gate locked. Sound good?"

Everyone agreed so Emmett did as he said he would do. We drove up to massive cottage and got out of the cars. Jasper tried the door handle and it was surprisingly unlocked. He stepped inside and reached for the lights. We were surprised again when they turned on. The zombie that stood in the middle of the large foyer was also surprised and began to lunge for us. Seth took aim this time and felled the zombie with a single shot. He went over to look at him.

"Hey, this guy looks awful familiar," he said leaning over to get a better look.

"Watch it, dumbass. Don't you watch zombie movies?" Emmett said as he pulled Seth back a foot. I was glad to see that he seemed over his phobia of the undead.

"Yeah, but look at him! Where have I seen him before?"

Charlie and Jasper came over to peer at him. "Oh. It's that guy! He was in those movies!" Charlie exclaimed. The rest of us came to see which actor had met his demise.

"Oh, that's what's-his-face!" I piped in. "He was in The Transporter and Snatch!"

"Snatch!" Emmett giggled like a moron until Rosalie smacked him up the side of his head. "Ouch, Rose! That really hurt!" he whined, rubbing his head. She just rolled her eyes at him.

"Jason Statham. That's the actor's name," Edward agreed, pulling me back from the dead zombie. "I wonder if this is his lodge."

"Well, not anymore," Sue said, walking past the zombie and going into the front room. Charlie followed close behind. "Can you please clean that shit up? It stinks."

Jasper and Alice grabbed poor, Ol' Jason and chucked him out and over the rod-iron fence. Esme had found some bleach and rags from somewhere and cleaned up the residue.

The rest of us split up and began exploring the place. Seth, Angela, Edward and I started up the stairs and began opening each door and doing a thorough search of each room, checking for more zombies. In our search, we came across 4 bedrooms, a large walk-in closet and a fully stocked kitchenette upstairs. There were more rooms downstairs, but the others were exploring those.

"So I wasn't kidding about that shower," Seth said as we came to a second bathroom. "As soon as we're done making sure there are no more of those things, I am hopping into one. Perhaps this one will do!" This current bathroom had a massive, rainforest-type shower, and an in floor hot tub big enough for 10 people. I was in awe.

"I can't decide whether I want to eat first or shower," Angela said. "I feel like I haven't eaten in days. Now that I think of it, I can't remember the last time I ate anything."

"How many days since the outbreak?" I asked Edward, because between disjointed sleep and lack of food, I couldn't pinpoint when it all started.

"Five," he said. "You haven't slept in a while."

"So, where are we all going to sleep?" Angela asked. She seemed a little nervous about this. Seth seemed hesitant to say anything, but I suspected that he didn't want to leave Angela alone. I'm not sure that would go over well, just yet. As much as I wanted to have some alone time with Edward, I felt really bad for Angela.

"Why don't the four of us stay in the master bedroom? The bed in there is big enough for all of us and then we can all feel safer. Plus my dad won't have a shit-fit about me sleeping with Edward." I looked up at Edward and grinned. He leaned down and kissed me.

"Great idea, Love," he answered. Everyone else nodded. "Everything looks clear. Why don't we let Seth have his shower, and we'll go down and see what Esme is cooking. I bet you are all starving."

"Yes!" the three of us all said at the same time.

On the way back down the stairs, we passed Charlie, who was heading up.

"I am going up to take a shower. Bella, what are you doing about sleeping arrangements?" He gave me the stern Dad look.

"The four of us are going to camp out in the master. None of us really want to sleep alone, so we figured it would be a good idea."

"Hmmm," was all that he said and he trudged up the stairs. I tried really hard not to roll my eyes.

After a delicious meal of baked salmon, rice pilaf, and some steamed vegetables, we settled into the main room with a big bag of chips and some sodas we had found. The vampires joined us, and were trying to think up a plan of escape.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" Carlisle asked the group.

"This would be so much damn easier if I could see past Seth!" Alice exclaimed. I know she had been trying her hardest to see the future, but between being around Seth constantly and all the zombies and chaos, she couldn't get anything concrete.

"Alice, why don't you and Jasper go out for a while? There doesn't seem to be too many zombies around, so you might be able to get a glimpse of something," Edward suggested.

"Edward, you know the visions are subjective…"

"Ok then, why don't we come up with a few game plans, and let Alice try to see what would happen if we picked those options?" I suggested.

"Bella, that's a great idea. We'll do that," Alice said.

We brainstormed for a little while, trying to think of ways to get out of the state. Some of them included finding a small watercraft and boating across. Emmett thought we should highjack a navy submarine, which would be ideal, but not very practical. Edward pondered running through the border near the mountains. Rosalie wanted to steal a plane.

"I think that's enough ideas for now. If I hit a wall, I'll try to come up with some new ideas when I'm out there. Come on Jazz, let get going," Alice said as she stood and headed for the door. Jasper grabbed the crossbow on his way out.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I am dead tired. I am going to bed now," Charlie said. "Bella, you should get some rest too. It sounds like we'll be busy tomorrow."

"Yes, Dad. Goodnight."

"Night." Charlie headed up stairs and a few minutes later, Sue headed up as well.

"Goodnight Seth," she said and hugged him tightly. "'Night, the rest of you."

"'Night, Ma," Seth replied.

"Esme and I will stay down here tonight. Try to get some sleep everyone. Lack of sleep heralds bad choices," Carlisle said to us.

"Yeah, I am very much looking forward to a few interrupted hours of sleep. Goodnight everyone," I said and rose from my seat. Edward followed me, as well as Angela and Seth.

"Um, Seth? I'd really like to have a shower before bed, but I'm, umm, a little nervous to be alone. Do you think you could stand guard outside the bathroom?" Angela almost whispered.

"Of course! I'll be right outside. Don't worry about a thing!" I think Seth was glad to be given the opportunity to give Angela something that she needed; security. He gave her a hug and sat down in the hallway beside the bathroom. She went in and closed the door.

Edward and I continued into the bedroom. He tried to hug me but I pushed him away.

"I am so gross! How can you even stand to be next to me? Bluh!"

"Bella, Love, I will always love you. Even if you are a tad ripe," he said and proceeded to put his arms around me despite my protests.

"Nice," I said. "But I would really like to get in the shower now. Hey, you wanna join me?" I asked and winked at him. To my utter surprise, his eyes turned black and his face got all serious. He nodded, took my hand and walked me into the bathroom.

_Holy shit! _I thought, not really sure what do to now. I had been joking, not really expecting him to join me. My legs and pits had a few days growth on them and I really needed to do some human things.

"Um, Edward? I really, _really_ want you to join me in the shower, but do you mind if I have about 10 minutes of human time? I, er, need to, um, do some things." My face must have turned about 8 shades of red.

He leaned down to my level and drew me in for a long, deep kiss. His cold hands wound around me and found their way under my shirt on the small of my back, making me shiver. I could feel my nipples hardening to the point where it almost hurt. The deep ache in my loins caused my hips to involuntarily buck against his. I could feel his hardness through his jeans and I bucked again, slowly. Edward broke the kiss.

"Jesus, Bella, you're going to kill me. You have ten minutes! Not a second more." He turned and walked out the door to wait in the bedroom.

I shut the door behind him, stripped naked as fast as I could and rummaged through the cupboard under the sink until I found some shaving cream and a disposable razor. They were for men, but I didn't care at the point. I also grabbed my toothbrush, some toothpaste and took everything over to the toilet. I stuck the brush in my mouth, rubbed shaving cream on my legs and sat down on the can and multi-tasked.


	15. Chapter 15

BPOV

"You have three minutes, Bella," Edward said to me from the other side of the door. _Shit!_ I wasn't ready and the bathroom didn't smell very nice. _Crap! Crap! Crap!_

I searched frantically for some air freshener or cleaner or something that might clear the air up a bit. I wished desperately for a match.

When Edward announced that I had two minutes left, I gave up and cracked the window, letting in the rain and wind. The cold air pricked at my naked skin, leaving goose bumps, but at least the smell was dissipating. I was sure that he could smell it anyway, which was embarrassing enough, but I wanted to make it as fresh in here as possible.

Then I remembered that I forgot to shave my armpits. "Aw fuck!" I swore under my breath.

"What was that Love?"

"Nothing! I'll be ready in a minute."

"Good, because a minute is all the time you have left before I barge in there."

I quickly shaved the offending area, forgoing the shaving cream, which probably wasn't the best idea, but I was out of time. I was turning the shower on just as Edward walked through the door.

"Bella," he said, his voice cracking. "Oh my God, Bella." His eyes roamed my naked body while his hands caressed my hair. I reached my hands up to caress his face.

"Why are you…" I started to ask him why this was ok now, when it never was before. I know we almost did it a few days ago, but I expected him to feel guilty and change his mind, like he always seems to.

"I can't…We…Bella, there is a chance we won't make it; a good chance. If we can't get you out, then I will stay with you, and I doubt even vampires can survive a nuclear blast. I wanted to give you as many human experiences as possible before you became one of us, but it's beginning to look like we won't have that chance. And if I can't give you all the things, then I can at least give you this."

He pulled me into his arms and we rocked each other for a while. I was the first one to pull back and I stood on my toes to give him a kiss.

"Well, come on then," I whispered to him and began removing his shirt. He had already taken off his socks and shoes and when I unfastened his jeans, they fell to the floor and he kicked them away from his feet.

I grabbed his hand and led him into the shower. The water was steaming hot and his skin warmed up quickly. I grabbed the soap and began to lather up his chest. I could feel his chest vibrating under my fingers and I could hear the purring coming from his throat. I felt a jolt in my nether regions.

I left my hand slide all over his body, lathering him completely. When I reached his groin, he had to hold on to the wall for support. He was so hard that I thought it might explode when I touched it. As it was, he bucked his hips involuntarily when I gripped him. I looked up at him, and the eyes staring back at me were black as night.

He grabbed a bottle of shampoo from the shower wall and began to lather it in my hair. I couldn't believe how good it felt and I tilted my head back and moaned. I felt his dick twitch against my stomach and I made sure to wiggle a little and cause some friction between us.

He growled as his hands left my hair and traveled down to my breasts. The shampoo that was on his hands caused them to slip easily over me in slow circle around them, never quite touching my nipples, which were so hard they almost hurt.

He then took the soap and began to run it over my body, paying special attention to my mound. He took his free hand and twisted his fingers into my pubic hair, pulling on them gently. He slipped a finger into my slit and rubbed my nub. I moaned again, rocking my hips against his hands. He leaned in and kissed me deep, our tongues dancing around each other's. I was careful not to touch his teeth.

He reached up and took the showerhead from its cradle and began rinsing us off, making sure there were no traces of soap left on us or on the shower floor. He replaced it when he was done and turned me around to that my front was facing away from him. He gently pushed my up against the cold shower tiles with my arms up over my head. He leaned into me and I could feel his cock resting between my bum cheeks.

"Do you feel what you do to me?" he asked huskily as he ran his hands down my sides and to my hips. "Can you feel how much I need you?"

"Please…" I whispered. He bent his knees a little and took his cock in his hands and pressed the head against me. Ever so slowly, he nudged it inside of me. I took one of my hands and began to pull on my nipples to make myself wetter, slipperier, hoping to make it as painless as possible. But in a way, I wanted the pain too.

He leaned in so that his mouth was on my neck and whispered to me to take a deep breath and relax. Then he forced his way inside of me. I felt my barrier break and I cried out, not sure if it was in pain or joy. He wrapped an arm around my waist and held me tight against him. He began to thrust his hips.

"Oh Bella," he groaned. "Oh God."

I couldn't say anything intelligible. I was lost in his touch, in the feeling of me incasing him. I felt like I was flying.

I started to feel something building deep within my belly. It was getting strong and before I knew it something exploded inside of me. I made some sort of noise and my knees gave out. Edward tightened his grip on my before I fell, picked me up and flung me so that my back was to the shower wall and my legs were wrapped around his body, my arms around his neck. He pushed back inside of me, forcefully, almost desperately. I hugged him tighter, not wanting any part of my body not touching him.

He buried his face in the crook of my neck, his useless breath was coming out in pants. I could hear him growling and feel his fingertips grip me harder, to the point where it was starting to hurt a little. I would have bruises, but it didn't matter. All I could think about was his pulsing cock in me, making me feel like I could fly. I gripped one hand into his hair and the other was scratching his back. If he were human, he'd have been bleeding.

I could feel him starting to shake all over, his thrusting becoming faster and more uncontrolled. He snarled fiercely into my ear. "Shhh, baby," I whispered back. "Easy." I kissed him softly along his neck and gently bit down on his earlobe.

He shifted my weight to one arm and smashed his other one into the wall beside my head as his body gave up what it had been holding in for so long. I could feel his cock pulse and his cum stream into my pussy as he roared my name. We held each other as he came down from his high, him leaning into me, our foreheads touching. We kissed once, twice and he gently put me back down. My legs left like Jell-o.

"Hey, are you two done in there, yet?" I heard Seth yell from the other side of the door.

I silently flipped him the bird, even though he couldn't see me. Edward chuckled and we slowly made our way out of the shower.

***

The four of us sat on the gianormous bed. Seth and I were leaning against the headboard, Edward sat at my feet, rubbing them, and Angela sat in front of Seth with her back to him. He was alternating between rubbing her shoulders and munching on some fun-yons he had found somewhere.

"Oh gross!" Seth said out of nowhere.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, that is just nasty! Ugh!"

"WHAT?"

"You can't hear that?"

I sighed. "Obviously not. What am I not hearing?"

"My mother and your father are getting it on!" Edward and Angela broke out into laughter.

"What? Ew!" I exclaimed. Parental sex was not exactly something I wanted to think about. Angela was holding her sides she was laughing so hard. "I mean, it's great that they've been able to lean on each other right now, but gawd! I don't want to know about it."

The laughter subsided when we all heard a moan coming from outside. Edward raced to the window to look out.

"There's one out there. Carlisle, can you take care of it without much noise? We don't want to attract any more." He listened for a reply that I couldn't hear, and then said, "Yes, we should probably do that too."

"Do what," Seth asked.

"Carlisle thinks we should shut off any unnecessary lights. We don't want to draw them to us."

"Good idea. You guys wait here, Eddie-boy and I will check for lights."

"Edward, not Eddie-boy," Edward was saying to Seth as he shut off the light and went out into the hallway.

"Sure, whatever, Edmeister," Seth replied.

I turned to Angela. "Shall we crawl into this nice warm bed? We'd may as well try to get as much sleep as possible."

"Bella, I'm scared. I'm afraid to close my eyes," she whispered to me.

"I know, but our boys won't let anything happen to us. They'll be back in a minute. And Edward doesn't sleep, plus the rest of the Cullen's. If something important happens, they'll wake us up. Try not to worry, ok?"

Angela nodded and in no time at all, Edward and Seth were back into the room. We all crawled into the bed, except Edward, who lay on top of the covers behind me, so not to make us all cold. I snuggled into his chest and closed my eyes as he ran his fingers through my hair.

I tried to fall asleep, and I was physically tired enough to do so, but my mind kept replaying the events of the past few days. When I almost drifted off, Jake's face kept popping into my mind. I missed my friend terribly. My breath hitched and some tears rolled down my face. Edward tightened his grip on me and began whispering that he loved me and wouldn't let anything happen to me. And when I finally fell asleep, I dreamt of flying.

***

JPOV

"How's this, Babe?" I asked Alice. We were perched in the tallest tree we could find, trying to get as far away from the offending creatures as possible.

"I think this might be ok. Hold on," she said and she closed her eyes. As her visions started, I could feel a whole range of emotions flowing from her, but the most prevalent one was disappointment.

"Something is wrong! This just doesn't make sense!" she blurted out suddenly.

"What's the matter?" I said jumping to my feet.

"Seth is blocking a lot of the visions, which I expected, but when I try to see around him, past the escape, I can't get anything concrete. From anyone! And Rose is gone completely. I don't see her at all!" Alice's frustration at the situation was making me edgy. I tried to calm her down.

"Well, can you see Emmett? Emmett would never be anywhere without Rose," I asked.

Her eyes went blank as she looked into the future. "Yes, I see Emmett, but he doesn't look well. He is naked and freaking out. He is screaming and calling for Rose."

"When does this happen?" I asked. This did not sound good at all.

"Emmett's still in the lodge. Tonight? Tomorrow? Soon anyway. We should head back, Jasper. I'm scared."

I pulled my mate close to me for a tight hug. "Everything will work out, Alice. You'll see, even if you don't see it now. I won't let anything happen to you."

Alice sighed and pulled away. "We have to get going. I love you Jaz."

"And I you, Hun."

We jumped down from the tree and began to run back to the cabin.


	16. Chapter 16

EmPOV

It was getting later in the night when Rose and I decided to find a room of our own and spend some "quality time" together.

"Rosie," I breathed as I kissed down her neck, my hands ripping off the offending material that stood between me and her luscious breasts. She had already torn off my clothes. We didn't have much time, so this was going to be fast and hard. I threw her down on the bed where she spread her legs for me.

I jumped on top of her, causing the bed to groan in protest. This poor bed was going to be toast by the time we were done with it. I slid into her easily. She was so warm and wet for me that I couldn't help but moan.

"Rosie, baby, you're so hot," I whispered as I thrust into her. Her nails dug into my back so hard I thought she was going to split my skin. "So hot!"

_Wait a minute_, I thought to myself. _She really is hot. _

"Emmett," she whined. "I don't feel…something isn't right."

I sat back on my heels and put my hands on her face. She was warm, very warm. If she were human, I'd think she had a fever.

"Rosie, baby, what's wrong?" I asked. I could feel a bubble of panic rising in my chest. "Carlisle!"

Carlisle, Edward and Esme came running in the room. Carlisle pushed me aside and began to exam Rose. She was now shaking and she looked as terrified as I felt.

"Rosalie, what are you feeling?" Carlisle asked as calmly as possible. His years of practicing medicine helped him remain calm, but I could tell something was very wrong.

"Carlisle…Emmett…I…I…" Rose stuttered and began to scream. Her skin began to quiver and it looked like it was turning inside out. I thought she would implode.

"Rosie!" I yelled. "Oh My God, ROSE!" I started to run towards her, and it took all three of them to hold me back. I think I might have broken Esme's nose, but at the moment, I didn't care.

And suddenly, instead of my beautiful, sexy Rosalie, there stood a very large, very angry looking wolf. The wolf snarled and snapped at us and we immediately backed up. She began pacing the other side of the room.

"Um, Seth? I think we might need your help!" Edward called out.

Seth ran into the room and skidded to a stop upon looking at the giant silver wolf with yellow eyes staring at him. "Holy shit!" he said.

"Seth, do you think you can calm her down?" Carlisle asked.

"Uh, well, uh. Let me see what I can do?" he said, making it sound like a question. He removed his clothes and phased into his wolf form and sat down in front of us.

"Edward?" I whispered. "Is Seth able to communicate with her like he could the pack?"

"Yes, but not quite in the same way. They are speaking telepathically, like the pack could, but they aren't able to see into each other's minds."

"Incredible!" we heard Sue say and we all whipped our heads around to see the four humans peeking through the doorway. Seth looked at Angela and then Edward and whined.

"Charlie, would you take the women downstairs? It's really not safe for either for any of you up here right now." Edward said to him. Charlie nodded and herded the girls away from the scene. Angela looked like she might faint.

I turned my attention back to Rose. I started creeping forward, with my hand out to her, as if she were a dog, so that she could smell me. "Rosie, babe, calm down. It's alright. Good girl." She growled and took a snap at me. I jumped back, startled. I couldn't believe that she would try to bite me, and I was a little hurt.

"Jesus, Emmett, she's not a dog," Edward said to me, rolling his eyes at my stupidity.

"Dude, what's she thinking? What's going on?"

" Seth is trying to explain to her how to phase back. I think we should go downstairs and let them try to work it out. Seth, Rose, will you two be ok?" Edward asked the two wolves. Seth nodded and turned his attention back to my wife. Carlisle, Esme and Edward headed out the door, but I hesitated.

"Rosie? I'm sorry, baby. Can I do anything?" I asked her as I pulled on some clothes.

She walked over to me and stood on her hind legs, placing her front paw on my chest. I leaned down and put my arms around her and squeezed gently, feeling her coarse silver fur between my fingers and on my cheeks. I noticed that unlike Seth, she did not reek of dog. She also wasn't near as big as he was, or the other wolves. "We're gonna get through this together, Rosie babe."

She nuzzled my chest for a moment then hopped back down on all fours and went over to Seth. The both looked at me, waiting for me to depart so that they could work on doing wolf stuff. I headed downstairs to join the rest of them.

BPOV

"Dad, are you ok? You're limping a bit." I noted as we got settled into the kitchen. I pulled some food out of the fridge as Sue closed the curtains in the windows so that we could turn some lights on.

"Yeah, Bells. Just twisted my ankle or something."

"You should have Carlisle take a look at that," I replied, shoving some of the leftover dinner in my mouth.

"No, honey, I'm fine. It's nothing." Charlie said, grabbing a forkful of food from out of the dish. I shrugged. Charlie was old enough to look after himself.

We grabbed some more food – you'd think we'd never eaten before – and headed into the main room, where the others, minus Rosalie and Seth, were sitting discussing theories.

"Do you think maybe she had the talent to shapeshift before and her attack with the wolves just was a catalyst for that ability?" Edward asked Carlisle.

"I suppose it's possible," he answered; a puzzled look on his face, like he didn't really believe that was the answer.

"Well, maybe the virus that infected the humans made the wolf gene infectious, and since no human would survive a wolf attack, we wouldn't have known," Esme added.

"Perhaps…" Carlisle trailed off.

"Does it really matter what brought it on?" Emmett asked. "I just want her to be ok."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Em, I'm sure she'll be just fine. Plus she has Seth to help her out."

"Thanks, Bells," he said, as he put his hand over mine and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Oh my God! Is Rose…?" Alice shrieked as she burst through the front door, causing nearly all of us to jump. Jasper was right on her heels.

"She phased, Alice. I guess Rose is a werewolf as well as a vampire." Esme explained to her.

"Oh, that just sounds wrong," Sue piped up. "I think shifter would be a more appropriate term."

"Yes, that does sound better," Carlisle agreed. We all nodded.

"Alice, could you see anything? You know, that might help us out of this hell, before something else goes wrong?" I asked, moving away from Emmett and curling up next to Edward.

"Not really much of anything. I couldn't see past Seth and then Rose flickered out of sight." Alice sighed in defeat. "I really don't know what we should do."

"Well, we need a plan. We can't just go out there without having one," Jasper said. "I think we should lay out all of our options and pick one. We have to get out of Washington before they decide to drop some bombs.

We all agreed and we laid out our options on the table. We had eliminated going by boat and making it to the mountains when Charlie began coughing and couldn't stop.

"Dad, are you ok?" I asked as Sue patted his back. Angela got up to get him a glass of water.

"Yeah…Bella…I'm…fine," he said between coughs. He took the water from Angela and was finally able to calm down.

I noticed the sideways glance Edward gave Carlisle. "What?" I asked.

Carlisle ignored me and spoke to Charlie. "Charlie, I heard Bella say you were limping. May I see your leg?" The look Charlie gave Carlisle made the pit of my stomach go cold.

"Not here. Upstairs," Charlie said and stood. He and Carlisle went upstairs to examine his leg.

"Edward? What's going on? What's wrong with my dad?" I was starting to panic. I lost my best friend only hours ago. I didn't think I could handle anything more. I began to hyperventilate.

"Bella…Bella breathe," he said, rubbing my back, trying to get me to calm down.

"Edward, is Charlie infected?" I asked, burying my head in my hands, not really wanting to know the answer.

"He had a scratch. On his leg. I saw it when we were…" Sue said quietly. "I thought…I didn't think…Am I infected too? Cause I…cause we…"

"Yes," Edward answered both of our questions.

We were about to lose two more of our group. My father and Seth's mother. Silence. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. There was nothing to say. They were infected. They would become zombies and we would have to kill them. I would have to watch my father die.


	17. Chapter 17

EPOV

Silence. There was nothing but silence. It was like everyone stopping speaking and thinking all at once. I had never heard a group so quiet, especially this group. The only two people in the house that were having any coherent thoughts were Carlisle and Charlie. And possibly Bella, although I doubted it.

I saw Charlie's leg through Carlisle's mind. It was raw, red and badly infected. When Sue had mentioned seeing a scratch on his leg, it had flashed through her mind. Mere hours ago, it had been nothing but a scratch and now it looked as through an infection had been festering for a week. It was spreading quickly.

"Charlie, why didn't you say anything?" Carlisle asked him_. If he had told us, I might have been able to amputate sooner. He might have been saved._

"I didn't want anyone to worry. It was just a scratch. It didn't even hurt much, at first," he answered. "Carlisle, how much longer do I have?"

"Honestly, I don't know. If you wanted, we could try amputation, although at this point, I'm not sure it would do any good."

"Could…could we try that? Do you think it might help buy some time?"

"I think we should discuss this with Bella, don't you?" Carlisle said. He felt that as his next of kin, she should have some say in how this played out. He wasn't sure Charlie was thinking in his right mind.

"Yeah, ok. Bella should know what's going on."

_Edward, can you bring Bella up here?_

"Come on, love. Charlie and Carlisle want to talk with you," I said to Bella, nudging her out of her sullenness. She nodded and got up and I followed her up to the room they were in. The smell coming off his putrid leg was overwhelming now that it was uncovered. I saw Bella wince when she saw it. She sat down next to Charlie and I stood beside Carlisle, who was trying to decide where to amputate.

"Bella, honey. It's bad. You can see that, right?" Charlie said to her. She nodded, tears beginning to fall from her wide, chocolate eyes.

"I've asked Carlisle to amputate my leg. He doesn't think it will stop the infection, but it might slow it down enough that I can help you to get to safety. But it might also be a burden on you all, too, especially if it doesn't work."

"Dad, I…" she began, but Charlie cut her off again.

"I'm scared Bella, and I don't want to die yet. But it's coming. And I want you to promise me that when that time comes, you'll make sure that I don't become one of those flesh-eating freaks. I don't think I could stand it."

"Dad, I can't! How am I supposed to do that? I already had to ki…do that to Jake. I can't do that again, especially not to you! I…" Bella's face was red and she was shaking. I was worried she would pass out. I moved to comfort her, but Carlisle held me where I was. _This is their moment, Edward. They may not get another one._

"Bells, calm down. I'm not asking for you to be the one who has to do it. I'm sure that Carlisle can handle that, right?" Carlisle nodded. "I just need you to realize that it will have to be done."

Bella was in full tears at this point and was having a hard time catching her breath. Charlie held her hands until she calmed down enough to speak, a full ten minutes later.

"Kay, Dad. Whatever you need. I love you."

"I love you too, Bells. I want you to always remember that."

"I will," she replied and went to kiss his forehead, but stopped herself before her lips reached his skin. "I can't kiss you, can I?"

"I wouldn't, Bella. Just in case," Carlisle replied.

She just nodded and headed downstairs. I stayed to assist Carlisle.

"Ok," Charlie said. "How are we going to do this business?"

"I've got some of the tools in my bag, but I don't have enough painkillers to put you out. And I will have to makeshift a cutting tool. It's going to be excruciatingly painful, Charlie.

"We'll have to get a few of us to hold you down when we first start. With any luck, you'll just pass out before we get too far. I'll make the cut, and cauterize the wound. I've got some antibiotics and even some anti-virals in my bag too, so you'll be fed those until we run out or can get you some more. They'll help keep any infection from happening and hopefully keep the transformation at bay for a little while."

"I'll be bleeding, and, no offence, you are all vampires. How is that going to work?" he asked.

"Charlie, you smell infected. It overwhelms any scent of your good blood. Trust me, none of us will lose control while this is going on," I answered and it was true. Charlie's, and now Sue's scents had changed in the last few hours. They didn't smell human anymore. We would not want to feed.

"Charlie, you should know about Sue…" I started.

"Oh God, Sue! Did I infect her?" he asked. His eyes threatened to overflow.

"Yes, Charlie. I'm sorry," I answered.

"Oh God save me," he whispered. "Tell her I'm sorry if I don't make it through this."

"Of course," Carlisle said. "Edward, would you and Emmett go look for some tools? I'm sure he needs a good distraction by now." He was right about that. Emmett was getting a little crazy thinking about Rose's situation.

"Of course, Carlisle," I said and went back downstairs to collect Emmett.

When I got to the main room, the first thing I noticed was that Bella was not there. The second thing I noticed was that Seth was. He had phased back and was sitting with this mother, who was crying quietly.

"Where the hell is Bella? And why aren't you with Rosalie?"

"Bella is in the kitchen, Edward," Alice replied.

"And Rosalie is still upstairs, taking a break," Seth replied without even looking my way.

I went into the kitchen to find Bella. She was sitting at the table, staring at nothing.

"Bella? Love, are you ok?" I asked, knowing that it was a stupid question.

"No, not really, Edward. I…I'd like to be alone for a little while. Is that okay?" she asked.

It stung a little that she didn't want my comfort, but I understood her need. I had to help take care of her father right now, anyway.

"Of course, love. I have to go help Carlisle. If you need anything, Alice and the rest are in the other room."

"Sure, sure," she replied, using that irritating, disrespectful phrase that she had picked up from Jacob.

"I love you," I said, but she had gone back to that dark place within her mind and did not reply. I didn't push her and went to collect Emmett.

CarPOV

While Emmett and Edward searched for the appropriate tools in the area, since, apparently, this Jason Statham person whose home we were in wasn't a carpenter or a cook and had no useful cutting tools, Esme and I prepared Charlie and the room for emergency surgery. She had found a plastic tarp, some towels and a few bottles of whiskey, which I would have to use to cleanse the wound before and after the amputation. But the plastic would not be enough to stop the blood from getting everywhere. We would have to leave immediately after to avoid further infection.

"Do we have a plan, Esme? I wasn't really listening to what was going on downstairs."

"Yes, I believe so. We're going to head to McChord Air Force Base, near Tacoma and steal a helicopter or two. It's about 185 miles Southwest of here. It would take under 4 hours for one of us to drive there under normal circumstances, but we really don't know what the roads will be like. Jasper thinks we should run, but that may not be possible with Charlie…" she said, he voice fading as she looked towards our patient.

"Do you think they've all gone? Or been changed?" Charlie asked. He was good at asking all the right questions.

"Alice tried to see, but she could only get a few glimpses. I suspect that means they are at least some zombies there. I guess we'll have to deal with that when we get there." Esme said to him. "Try not to worry about that now, okay? You need all your strength for this."

Charlie nodded and closed his eyes. I could see sweat starting to bead on his forehead and I could hear his heart rate increase a little. I didn't know if it was from the infection or nervousness.

"We're back, Carlisle. We found a few things that we can use." I heard Edward say as he came through the front door downstairs.

"Good. Bring them upstairs. Jasper, would you come help us, please?"

Jasper, Emmett and Edward arrived a few moments later and Edward laid out the tools for me to choose from. There was a handsaw and a hacksaw, a butcher's knife and a very sharp serrated bread knife. They had also found some dust masks and some glasses. "To keep the splatter away from our faces," Emmett had explained.

Charlie peeked up from the bed. "Oh, this is going to be all kinds bad," he said and thudded his head back down on the pillow.

I picked the hacksaw and sterilized it as best as I could with the alcohol and walked over to Charlie. "Are you ready?" I asked.

"Jesus Christ, no," he said and turned to my son. "Edward, if I don't make it, you make sure to keep my little girl safe, you hear me? No matter what. If making her into your kind is the only way, then you do it!"

"But…" Edward started. I knew he was trying to avoid that possibility, despite the bargain we had made when they returned from Italy.

"No buts!" Charlie yelled at him. "You do it! You keep my girl alive at all costs!" He turned back to me, not waiting for Edward's reply. "'Kay doc, I'm ready."

"Okay. Here we go."

We all donned the masks and glasses and got into position. Edward holding down his good leg, Emmett holding up the bad one and keeping Charlie's hips still, Jasper restraining his torso and Esme holding his hands. She would be trying to soothe him during the ordeal. I took my position beside Emmett.

"Charlie, this is going to hurt a lot, and I'm sorry for that," I said and began cutting into his rotting flesh. I could feel him flinching and struggling, and I looked up to see him grinding his teeth, trying not to scream. He did well, until I reached the femur a moment later. Then the screaming started. Tears streamed from his face and his skin stretched as he screamed for us to stop; for us to kill him before he had to endure any more. Guilt consumed me, and for a moment, I considered it.

"Carlisle, you can't," Edward said, reading my thoughts as he held down Charlie's good leg. "We have to try."

I nodded and continued my work, cutting through the marrow and through to the other side. Blood had splattered everywhere, just as Emmett had prepared for. There was no way I would ask any one of us to clean up this mess. And just as I had feared, the infection was spreading. I could actually see the rot creeping along his bone and flesh and into the rest of his body. It was moving even faster than I had originally anticipated.

I tossed the separated limb to the side and splashed the remaining leg with the whiskey and Charlie screamed as the alcohol burned into the open wound. Esme tried to soothe him, whispering that it would be ok and that it would be over soon. He called her a few choice words that I let slip by due to his condition.

I grabbed a bottle of water that we had boiled earlier and began the job of cleaning his leg of the alcohol before we cauterized it. When I touched his leg, I could feel the fever in him, and when I looked up, I saw that he was bathed in sweat. His skin was beginning to take on a grayish tone that I didn't like.

I took the metal mixing bowl and began to heat it with the barbeque lighter that Mr. Statham had so generously left for us and then placed his stump inside the bowl to seal it. It was at this point that Charlie finally passed out. We all sighed in relief and the rest of my family was able to loosen their grip on him. I continued the cauterization process.

"Carlisle, his heart…" Edward said. It was irregular and slow. His blood pressure was dropping. He had lost more blood than I would have liked.

"If he dies now, he'll come back. If it stops, start pumping his heart. Do NOT breathe for him." I instructed.

It was then that we heard the scraping noise behind us. We all turned to watch Charlie's severed limb twitch and move.

"Dude, that is fucking gross," Emmett said and he involuntarily gagged.

We were so engrossed with the zombie limb that we didn't even notice when Charlie's heart stopped beating.

"Oh shit!" Edward exclaimed and began to perform CPR. I knew it was too late, but I let him continue for a few moments, letting hope take me over. I prayed to God that he would let Charlie live.

He must not have heard my prayers, as when Charlie opened his eyes a minute later, they were yellow and soulless. Charlie was gone and all that remained was a zombie. It snarled and snapped at Esme, who was closest, but she was easily able to move away.

"If we deal with this quick enough, Bella will never have to know that her father became a zombie. We could tell her that he died during the surgery," Edward said, quickly and quietly.

"I agree," Jasper said. "Bella is on the edge of losing it. I'm not sure she could take it."

"You would lie to her again? After all you've been through?" Esme said, shocked at the notion.

"I think that in this situation, it would be best," Edward said.

I didn't have much time to think this through, but I saw his point. It would possibly destroy her to know that her father had become a zombie. We couldn't afford for our newest daughter to lose it.

"Very well. We end it now, and tell the rest of them he died on the table. We'll have to destroy his body, though." I said, knowing she would probably want to see his body.

Without another word, Emmett, who seemed to have overcome his fear of the living dead, drove the serrated knife into the head of the zombie whose body once held Charlie. It became still as did the detached leg. Emmett and Jasper wrapped his body in the tarp that he was laying on and took him out through the window.

Esme looked out after them and quickly drew her head back in. "Charlie's screamed must have attracted the nearby zombies. There is a handful out in the yard."

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Shit," he stated. "We'll have to leave immediately."

"Everyone, get cleaned up. Alice, tell everyone downstairs to take what they can and get ready. We have to leave."

I heard Alice whisper a quick "Ok" and we began the task of cleaning ourselves of the mess that was, ultimately, all my fault.

SPOV

Oh my God. Oh My God. Oh My Fucking God!! I was infected. INFECTED! I was gonna…become… Oh, good Lord, I couldn't even think it…

I didn't really feel any different, did I? Nothing ached, nothing tingled, I didn't feel sick. But something was…off. That's the best I could describe it. Yes…off.

"Mom, are you ok?" Seth whispered to me. He was no longer holding my hand. In fact, he had gotten up and washed his hands after touching me. I felt dirty. The look of shame on his face made me wonder if I had said that out loud.

"Mrs. Clearwater, can I get you something to drink?" Angela asked me. I stared at her for a minute before answering her, thinking about how at least Seth wouldn't be completely alone once I was killed.

"Thank you dear. That would be nice," I replied. She got up and left.

Then the screaming started. Charlie's horrible, blood curdling screams. I placed my hands over my ears and began to rock back and forth, praying to god for him to die quickly. We all knew this amputation nonsense wasn't going to work, but put us all through the extra torture.

When Charlie finally stopped, I looked up and noticed that the little vampire, Alice, was no longer in the room with us. It was just Seth, Angela and I.

"Where is your pack mate?" I asked Seth, referring to the vampire shifter. I heard a growl coming from the kitchen.

"We're not part of a pack, Mom. And she's in the kitchen with Alice and Bella. She couldn't concentrate with all the…noise…going on upstairs so she came back down."

"Yes. Of course." I said, a little absently.

I looked over and saw Seth wince while his head was turned up towards the stairs. He must have been able to hear what was going on up there.

"Did…did Charlie make it?" I asked, hopeful.

"Uh, no, Mom. He died during the surgery. Lost too much blood…or something."

I opened my mouth to ask the most important question, but I couldn't bring myself to say it. Angela asked it for me.

"Did he become…one of them?" she whispered.

"No. No, he didn't. They destroyed his brain before he could change," he replied and looked away from both of us. He was lying. A mother always knows when her children lie. But I didn't call him on it. It was an important lie, one we had to keep for Bella. The poor dear, her best friend and now her father. Yes, we would keep that lie for her sake.

But that meant that there was no way I could escape that horrible fate. If I left it up to them, I would end up one of them, like Charlie had in the end. I had to find a way to keep that from happening. I couldn't become a zombie…I just … just …couldn't.

I began to plan.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

APOV

Oh God, the screaming! I didn't think I could take it, until I heard Bella's whimpers from the kitchen and the slight sound of hair breaking. I ran into the kitchen to see how she was holding up.

She wasn't at the table where I expected her to be. I found her curled up in a corner near the window, her knees pulled to her chest and her hands wrapped in her hair. She had her eyes clamped shut and her teeth were clenched. She was rocking back and forth, like a madman. For a brief moment, I wondered if I'd ever had that look at the insane asylum when I was human.

I curled up next to her and wrapped my stone arms around her and rocked with her, trying to sooth her as best as I could, which wasn't a lot. I was at a loss as to what I could do to help my best friend, but I was also grieving myself. I really liked Charlie and I was devastated that this had to happen to such a great man. If I were human and didn't have Carlisle, Charlie would be the type of father I would want. I buried my face in Bella's neck and sobbed with her.

Surprisingly, Rosalie, who had shown nothing but distain for Bella, padded into the kitchen and lay down on the floor next to us and placed her head in Bella's lap. Without realizing it, Bella had taken one of her hands away from her hair and began pulling at Rose's fur. I whispered my thanks to her and she just huffed and closed her eyes, letting Bella pull at her silver coat.

It was hard to hear what was going on over the screaming, but I could make out most of it. Carlisle was very skeptical that this was going to work, but Edward was making him try, for Bella's sake. I could still hear Charlie's heartbeat, but it wasn't going to be good. I didn't need my psychic powers to know that he wasn't going to make it. Also, his screams had attracted some unwanted zombies outside. There weren't too many, maybe five, but there would likely more to follow. I had to get Bella to calm down.

"Bella? Bella! You have to be quiet," I spoke softly to her, but she didn't seem to hear me. She had retreated into herself, but when his screams finally stopped, I noticed that she breathed a small sigh between her whine. I doubt she realized she did it or that she was even making that noise, for that matter.

Rose and I listened to the drama happening upstairs, and it wasn't good news. Charlie was dead, and they didn't act fast enough to prevent the final change. He had become a zombie, even if it was only for a few seconds. And while I didn't agree with keeping that information from Bella, we didn't have time for her to have a mental breakdown about it either. We would just have to go along with the lie for now.

BPOV

When my brain began processing information again, the first thing I noticed was the high pitch keening sound coming from somewhere in the room. The next thing I noticed was that I was sitting on the cold floor with Alice's cold arms wrapped around me. The third thing I noticed was that Rosalie's head was in my lap and I was clutching her fur tightly.

"Bella, can you hear me?" Alice asked, noticing my movement. "You need to be quiet."

"What?" I asked and the irritating sound stopped. _Oh, it must have been me. _"Oh, yeah. Sorry."

Rosalie lifted her head from my lap and turned her head towards a window. She whined.

"And I think we need to move away from the window, too," Alice continued. "The, er, recent activity attracted some unwanted visitors."

"Sure, sure," I replied and I unfurled Rose's fur from my hands. Alice helped me up off the floor and we made our way back into the main room where Edward and Esme were waiting.

"Bella, we have to leave here soon. Are you going to be ok?" Edward asked. I noticed that he and Esme both were freshly scrubbed clean and had new clothes on. Charlie's amputation must have been messy.

Oh. Charlie. My heart sank as I remembered his screaming. My stomach turned and I threw up over myself and the floor in front of me. I didn't even care enough to feel embarrassed.

"Sorry," I said and went into the small powder room off the kitchen to clean up. Edward knocked and came in a moment later with some fresh clothes.

"Bella, are you going to be ok? I'll take care of you if you need help, but right now we really need you to be strong," Edward said as he helped me brush out the tangles in my hair.

"Yes, I'll be ok," I replied. I would have to be to make it out of here alive. I made the decision to have the mental breakdown later. "Did you…Did Charlie…Please tell me you made sure he didn't become…" I couldn't even think the word anymore. I didn't want to.

"Bella," Edward said, looking into my eyes through the mirror in front of us. "When we realized he wouldn't make it, we took care of him. He was at peace and we made sure he stayed that way."

I looked at him for a long time, trying to determine if he was telling the truth. He had a habit of skewing the truth in the guise of protecting me. Then I realized that if that wasn't the truth, I didn't really want to know right now. I couldn't deal with the alternative.

"Thank you," I whispered and he took my hand and kissed the back of it. I smiled weakly and finished cleaning up

Back in the main room, Esme had cleaned up my mess and the rest of the Cullens had now joined the crowd. Jasper was laying out the plans to go to the nearest air force base.

"You can fly a helicopter?" Seth said, his sad eyes lighting up a little.

"I can't, but Esme can," Jasper replied and Seth's eyes got a little bigger.

"Dude, that is awesome!" Esme beamed a little.

"So are we running or driving?" Angela asked nervously. I don't think she was too keen on running.

"Running is faster, but we won't be able to take as much supplies," Edward said, looking at me. He frowned. I'm sure he was thinking about the things that he thought I would want or need on this trip.

"Well, what's more important? Getting the fuck out of here or having clean underwear? I don't know about you, but I'd rather live," I said. Angela and Sue nodded.

"Alright then, we'll run. It will probably be easier to avoid the hoards that way, anyway," Jasper said. "We'll take only things that are necessary, like our identifications and money."

"Don't forget about food for the non-vampires, Jazz," Alice said. "What else would you guys need?"

"First aid kit, toilet paper, some mouthwash maybe," Seth added. Angela and I nodded in agreement.

"How long will it take us to run there," Sue asked. I looked over at her and noticed her skin was now starting to look pale under her russet tone. I tried not to think about that.

"I'd guess about an hour. Maybe two depending on the detours we'll have to take. Also, you, Bella and Angela will probably need a break now and then," Jasper replied.

Just then we heard a window crash in the kitchen.

"Shit!" Edward cried. "Ok, we know the routes. Alice, Esme, grab whatever you can and stuff them in the backpacks. Bella, on my back." He scooped me up and I clung to him.

Emmett walked over to Angela. "May I?" he asked, holding out his hand as though he were asking her to dance. She nodded and he threw her up onto his back as well. Carlisle carried Sue bridal style and Seth phased into his wolf form to keep up with us.

As soon as Alice and Esme joined us again, we were out the door and into the woods behind our temporary sanctuary. I looked behind me at the last place I saw my father and felt a lump in my throat. Before I could stop, I choked on a sob and a tear fell down my cheek, landing on Edward's neck.

"Shh, Bella. It'll be all right. I promise," Edward crooned. He took my wrist in his hand and kissed it where the blood pumped the hardest. I nodded, but couldn't reply.

I usually loved running with Edward, but this time it was just plain scary. We were going fast than he had ever run with me on his back and I was scared that I would fall off. We had only been running about 10 minutes when I asked Edward if we could stop for a minute.

"I'm having a hard time keeping a good grip," I explained.

"Do you want me to carry you?" he asked, but before I could answer, Alice appeared.

"I have a better idea," she said. She pulled a rope from out of her backpack and proceeded to create a makeshift snugli for Angela and me.

"How's that?" she asked when she was finished.

I wiggled around a big, but it seemed as though it would hold up. "Seems alright," I said.

"Mine's chafes a little, but it's better than being thrown off at 100 miles an hour," Angela said. After a few more adjustments so we wouldn't blister, we were ready and on the move again.

We didn't see as many zombies as I thought we would and the few we did see didn't take much notice of us. There was one who was sitting on his heels, picking away at the brain of a dead guy like he was a monkey picking fleas off his mate. It was almost funny looking. The next group we came across made me gag, though. One was scooping brain matter from a corpses skull while another had ripped the flesh clean from an arm and was sucking the marrow from the bone like he was drinking a milkshake.

"Don't look, Bella," Edward told me once he heard my stomach gurgle and the gag in my throat. But it was too late. What had been seen could not be unseen. If I ever slept again, I was sure that I would be having nightmare about that last two zombies.

We found a small clearing to stop at for our next break. I think that Angela must have seen the same thing as I had, since Emmett's shoulder was covered in vomit.

"That's a nice look for you, Em," Edward teased. Emmett glared at him and flipped him the bird. We all laughed. It was nice to laugh again, even over something so stupid. It died down quickly though when Carlisle entered the clearing with Sue.

SPOV

I could feel the sickness moving through my body. It seemed to be moving faster through me than it did through Charlie, but maybe it was partially in my head. No, that wasn't right. I could feel it eating away at my insides, poisoning me. I felt feverish and I was sweating. I felt bad for Carlisle, who had to touch my slick skin and look at my paling face.

There was no way I could stop the transformation. I knew that. _But how could I prevent myself from becoming …one of those, _I thought as we passed the marrow-sucking zombie.

If I killed myself, I would have to destroy my brain at the same time, but how could I make myself do that? What could I even do that would do that? I'm not sure I could get a hold of one of the guns that they were carrying.

Running with a vampire was a bizarre situation. Time seemed to fly and before long it was time for a break. We entered the clearing shortly after the rest of the them and Carlisle put me down on the soft grass. I looked up at the sky and could see by the sun that it must have been close to 8 in the morning. I wondered again how much time I had and began to think of what I could…

Oh. Bella's vampire turned his head sharply my way. I remembered hearing how some of the others would block their thoughts from the mind-reader and I began to sing a tune in my head. That would deter him.

EPOV

_What would be the best way to get that gun…_ I heard from Sue and I whipped my head around to look at her. What the hell would she want a gun for? But she never finished the thought and a stupid camp-tune began playing through her mind.

Gory, gory what a helluva way to die

_With a rifle up your ass and a bullet in your eye_

_Gory, gory what a helluva way to die_

_When you balls are hanging lower than you paratrooper boots._

I would have to keep an ear out for this one. I swear to God, if she did anything to endanger my Bella, I would rip her apart while she still lived.


	19. Chapter 19

BPOV

"Bella… Bella, wake up. We're here, love," Edward whispered to me. I don't remember dozing off and my brain felt fuzzy and my limbs hurt after the short nap. I looked over at Angela and noticed that she didn't look much better, especially since she still had vomit in her hair and caked to hers and Emmett's clothes. And Sue just looked like shit.

"What now?" I asked. Everyone seemed a little stumped as to what to do next. The base was mostly a massive airfield, and we could see zombies and corpses everywhere. We were grouped behind a clump of cars on the west side of the base, close to the three, side-by-side bunkers. Unfortunately, the helicopters we were planning to steal were not anywhere near us.

"So, uh, do you guys need keys or something to start those beasters, or what?" Seth asked, having shifted back into his human form. He was standing next to Emmett, Angela and Rose, who still hadn't figured out how to shift back. He was wiping puke off of Angela.

"I'm sure we can jump start them, it's just a matter of doing it without attracting any attention," Jasper said. "And we'll need two, which makes it twice the hassle."

"Who besides Esme can fly one of these?"

"Well, no one really knows how, but if Rosalie can shift back, she would be the best candidate," Jasper replied. "She has the best knowledge of mechanics and would be able to pick it up easily."

We all turned to look at Rosalie, who growled, huffed, and then walked away from us. Emmett pulled Angela from her make-shift carrier and followed her. Seth looked from Rosalie to Angela, torn between what he should do.

"Go help her," Angela whispered. "I'm sure I'll be fine for a few minutes." He nodded and lopped off to find Rosalie and Emmett.

"We still need to know how to get over there safely," Edward said. "Alice, go see."

Alice stealthily ran over to the bunkers and scaled it until she was on the roof and was back down in a flash. "There are at least a thousand; probably more in the area. This is the biggest hoard we've come across. I suspect that when the outbreak first started, people in the area flocked here for protection, or thinking they would get a way out."

"Shit," nearly all of us said at once, including Carlisle and Esme, who rarely ever swore.

"Ok, so probably the best thing to do would be send Esme and Rose to work on the helicopters and get them started before the rest of us make ourselves known." Jasper said.

"Yes, but a thousand zombies are a lot to fight off, even for one or two of us." Esme said.

"We'll need to create a diversion, somehow. Draw the crowd away from the helicopters," Carlisle said.

"But we would need to do it in a way that we would be safe and be able to get to the chopper once they're started," I added.

Edward turned his head to look at me behind him. "We? You will be staying out of harms way," he said incredulously.

"Good Lord, Edward. Be serious. I'd need to come with you. There are shit-loads of walking, brain-eating corpses walking around over there. I'm pretty sure they would find me once you started drawing their attention." He pinched the bridge of his nose in a moment of annoyance.

"Look, here's what we do. We all get up on the roof of the bunker and you guys start throwing shit at them. Drag some cars or barrels up there or something. I'm certain that will get their attention," I said. "And when Esme and Rosalie get the choppers going, they can easily pick us up."

"They can't land on the roof," Edward said in exasperation.

"No, but I'm pretty sure they can lower some ladders or ropes or something. Hell, you guys can just jump up, can't you? I mean, you are super intelligent, agile, mythological creatures of the underworld, are you not? I'm pretty sure you could manage." I was beginning to get annoyed, and with the rest of the Cullens smirking at our argument, it wasn't helping my mood.

Alice got control of herself long enough to pipe in. "She's right, Edward. It makes sense to do it that way. It's probably the safest for the humans, too."

Edward sighed, knowing he had lost this one. I hated it when he was annoyed with me, but we didn't really have time for his bullshit. "Fine, let's get Sue, Seth and Angela and Bella up there first, in the middle of the three bunkers. Once they are secure, we can clear the surrounding area of anything we can throw at them or anything they can climb up on. I don't want them anywhere near the roof. Bella, I want you to please, PLEASE, be extra careful up there," he said.

"Yeah, you aren't exactly known for your grace and balance," Emmett said, re-joining the group along with Seth and a naked Rosalie, who was hiding behind Emmett.

"Yay! You're back to you!" Alice squealed and she rummaged through her backpack for some fresh clothes for Rosalie. In a flash, she was dressed and ready to go.

Jasper filled them in on what we were going to do. Angela got settled into the harness and Edward and Emmett scaled the bunker with us on their backs. Jasper helped Seth up, Carlisle carried Sue and we all got settled in the middle of the sloping roof as best as we could.

"Please try not to touch Sue," Carlisle whispered to us. "I'll be back with you in a few minutes. If something happens between now and then, yell for help." We nodded, although Seth didn't seem pleased about that. I felt bad for Sue and sad for Seth, but I had absolutely no intention of touching her at all. She reminded me too much of Charlie, and I didn't have time to think about all that right now.

Carlisle's worry was for not, though, as it only took them a few minutes to throw some cars and other debris that was lying around up onto the roof of the other two bunkers. And the noise that they made had already attracted some of the zombies. They quickly ran back up the buildings, Carlisle and Edward joining us and Emmett, Alice and Jasper on the other two, ready to start distracting. Esme and Rosalie stayed on the ground and were already running between zombies, cars and various vehicles, trying not to be noticed.

"Now's as good as time as any," Emmett yelled and hoisted a hummer up over his head like it was an empty cardboard box and threw it down into the crowd, crushing a few Z's. All the zombies in the immediate area took notice and began skulking over to us, moaning and making horrible slurping sounds.

I looked down and was shocked to see what a thousand zombies looked like. It was gross and even this early in the morning, the smell was horrific. It looked just like a sea of rotting corpses, which, in essence, it was. It had only been a few days since the initial outbreak, but the rain really did a number on them, especially where there were open sores. I stopped looking at them when I saw one that had its innards drooping out from its abdomen.

The Cullen's looked like they were having fun chucking things at the zombies. They didn't kill too many, but they were doing a great job of distracting the hoard from Esme and Rosalie. I suddenly had the urge to join in.

"Edward, hand me a gun?" I asked, already starting to stand up.

"Bella, sit down. There is no way you could even put a dent in the mass down there," he replied.

"Yeah, I know. I just…" I just what? What did I think I would accomplish? Seth seemed to know, though, because he stood up himself and passed me a gun.

Edward began to protest, but Seth cut him off. "Bella needs the same thing I do. We need to feel useful and we need to let our frustrations go." I smiled at him. That was exactly what I planned to accomplish. I had felt like there was nothing I could do, and I wanted to do something.

I carefully made my way as close to the edge of the roof as I dared, with Seth and Edward following close behind. I checked my rounds, and looked over the edge, deciding which Zed-Head I would take down first.

"Hey, you see the one down there that looks like fat Elvis? He's mine!" Seth said and blew the top of Elvis's head off. Gray matter flew everywhere as he crumpled in a heap.

"Nice! Edward, I can't decide. Pick one for me."

Edward scanned the crowd for a microsecond before picking one. "Alright, see if you can get the one that looks like that actor you say looks like me."

"Robert Pattinson? Ah, there he is. Down you go!" I shouted before I pulled the trigger. I shot him in the ear, my first shot, but got him right between the eyes my second. I raised my arms over my head and let out a primal war-like scream. Seth laughed at me before taking down some blond Zed.

We went on like that for a bit, calling our zombies before taking them down. When Emmett ran out of things to throw, he joined us with his rifle, as did Jasper with his weapon. Eventually, Carlisle stopped us, saying that we shouldn't waste our ammo like that. We were a little disappointed, but he was right and we moved back towards the middle of the roof and sat down to wait for Esme and Rose.

"Do you think they'll be much longer?" Carlisle asked. He was clearly worried about his wife, even though they were still within the vampire's hearing and seeing range. They had only been confronted by a handful of zombies, but it was still making everyone nervous that it was taking so long.

"Rose was lucky. The pilot was dead next to the helicopter and had the keys in his pocket. They are now both working on Esme's. But I think they almost have it," Edward said just as we heard the whine of the choppers starting up. We all stood in anticipation of our rescue.

The zombie's attentions were split now. Some were lumbering over towards the sound of the helicopters and some were still frantic to get to us. Emmett took a peek over the side of the bunker to see how many had stayed close.

"Shit, dude. They are fucking climbing each other down here," he said in a slightly panicked voice. Edward went to the other end of the bunker and noted the same thing.

"I thought they were stupid!" Seth exclaimed.

"They have no intelligence, but they are desperate. They have no concept of what they are doing, they are just doing what they can to get what they want," Jasper explained.

"Are they going to make it over?" I asked.

"Maybe, but here comes Esme and Rose now," Alice said, clapping her hands. We all sighed in relief. We were going to get out of this nightmare!

Esme's helicopter flew overhead while Rose circled away from us. She shouted something that I couldn't hear, but the rest of the Cullen's must have because Jasper grabbed Alice and tossed her up into the air like she was an acorn and she flipped herself into the helicopter. She threw out the ladder and Edward put me on with him right behind me. I carefully made my way up the swaying death trap, only slipping twice. Edward caught me easily, though and we were safe. Jasper climbed up next, and Esme manoeuvred out of the way so Rose could pick up everyone else.

As grateful as I was that we were safe from the zombies, I was terrified of the helicopter. In order to have enough room for us all, we had stolen the type with the open sides. I made sure that I was buckled in as tightly as I could be and scrunched myself up next to Edward and cling to him as the wind whipped my hair around my face.

"I'd never let you fall out, love," he said as he wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my head and I let myself relax for the first time in days.

SuePOV

I knew what to do. I had found my way out. I just needed to be able to sit up…

EPOV

I saw in Sue's mind what she intended to do. I looked over towards the other helicopter, which was positioned a few meters above ours. They wouldn't hear me if I yelled. There wasn't anything I could do. I hugged Bella closer, hoping to shield her from what was about to happen.

SuePOV

"Carlisle?" I croaked. I sounded like shit. "Can I sit up please? I've never been in a helicopter before and I'd like to see."

"Of course, Sue," Carlisle said and he helped me to sit up. I was extremely dizzy, but I somehow managed to get upright in the seat. I inched a little closer to the edge and looked down at the landscape below. It was beautiful.

And without another thought, I leaped towards the opening.

SethPOV

"Mom! NO!" I shouted as my mother leapt from her seat and out the opening of the helicopter.

EmPOV

When I saw Sue rise from her seat, I also began to rise in order to catch her, but I wasn't fast enough. In what felt like slow-mo, I watched Sue tumble down and hit the blade of Esme's helicopter. Her shoulder hit first, and the spinning blades tore into her, severing most of the right side of her upper torso. Her head followed, shattering her skull into a million pieces. The rest of her body was gone in a flash of gore. I watched as her stomach and upper intestine flew off into the distance and blood and random pieces of flesh splattered the underside of our helicopter and hitting me in the chest.

Seth's scream had startled Rose and she jumped, causing out chopper to tilt. I lost my balance and stumbled backwards towards the other side, causing me to bump into Angela, but I caught myself before I fell out.

EPOV

We felt the jerk of our helicopter as Sue hit the blades, but Esme had seen her jump and was prepared. She kept us steady.

"What the fuck was that?" Bella asked.

"Sue jumped," Jasper replied. "She…she just couldn't…you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Bella whispered.

AngPOV

It hadn't clued into me what had just happened. Seth was screaming and suddenly the helicopter jerked sideways. Emmett crashed into me with such force that the clasp of my seatbelt broke along with my shoulder and I tumbled out of the helicopter. I screamed.

SethPOV

"Oh God, Mom!" I cried, tears streaming down my face. I reached over to hold Angela's hand, and she wasn't there. I heard another scream. "Wha? Ang? ANGELA!"

EmPOV

"SHIT!" I jumped out of the helicopter after Angela without thinking.


	20. Chapter 20

EmPOV

The wind rushed through my hair and over my body and I dove out of the helicopter to catch Angela, trying to make my body straight as to lower the wind resistance as much as possible so that I could catch up to her.

I watched her flail about only a meter or two away from me. I tried to yell at her, to tell her to flatten herself out, but she couldn't hear me. I could hear her, though, as she looked up and saw me.

"Emmett! Help me!" she screamed.

I tried yelling down to her again. "Angela! Flatten out!" But I knew the words didn't reach her as I watched her look up at me in confusion before she flipped in the air again.

I growled and thrust my hands out in front of me like Superman might, trying to make myself go faster. I noticed it was helping; I was starting to catch up. Just another few feet and I would try to make a grab at her.

I looked around at the landscape, trying to determine how fast we were dropping and if I would be able to reach her before we hit the ground. I tried not to think about what would happen if we landed in a zombie-infested area. Or what would happen to her body upon impact. Chances are, we'd go right through the ground and she would shatter.

"Emmett!" she screamed for me again, and tried to reach up for me. But we were still too far apart by a few inches. I waited another second and tried again. I was able to grab her wrist, but I crushed it in my panic. She screamed in agony, as I pulled our bodies closer together, with her back facing the ground below.

"Do you have a parachute?" she yelled into my ear.

"No," I yelled back. I felt her grip me with her three good limbs as tight as she could, even though it felt as tight as my clothes might.

"I need to flip us around," I tried explaining to her. "Don't let go!"

I don't know if she replied or not, but it didn't matter. I needed to flip us before we hit the ground. If I landed on top of her, she would die instantly.

With only seconds away from hitting the ground, I spun us around to that my back would hit the ground first. As we made impact, I felt the ground give way around me, creating a small crater in the earth. I felt Angela's bones crunch around me. I smelled the blood leaving her body, and I couldn't help myself. I lifted her off me, flipped her hair out of the way, and bit down on her neck.

EdPOV

Everyone's thoughts were the same, as we watched Angela, and then Emmett plummet to the earth below. Horror. Pain. Dread. Emmett would be fine, but Angela would not. And Sue was already gone. We had just lost two more members of our odd group. Bella burst into tears, unable to contain her anguish any longer and Seth's howling screams could be heard for miles, even over the whine of the helicopter.

"Esme, you need to land," I told her. She nodded and began the decent. It wouldn't be hard to locate where they had fallen; the new crater in the ground was an easy visual. We just had to hope that the sound of the impact hadn't attracted any unwanted visitors.

"I can't see if she'll make it. It's very unclear. But she's not dead yet," Alice said in a low voice.

"How could she have survived though?" Bella asked through her tears. I pulled her into my lap and held her tight.

"I…I think …I see flashes. I can't tell if he'll stop in time." Alice said, her eyes blank. Her mind was a jumble of half thoughts and predictions. In one instant I saw Emmett devouring her and in another, I saw her with glittering skin and red eyes.

"What do you mean, Alice?" Bella asked.

"Emmett bit her. He can't decide whether or not to stop drinking. He'll either kill her or turn her."

"Shit," Jasper said and before the helicopter hit the ground he jumped out and ran over to where Emmett and Angela were. Carlisle and I ran after him and together, the three of us pulled Emmett off of Angela and dragged him back to the helicopters. Rose took him from us and took him away from the scene.

"Will she make it, Carlisle?" I asked and he checked her over.

"I honestly don't know. It's a wonder she's alive at all, and between the impact and Emmett, she has lost a lot of blood."

Seth had joined us at this point and knelt over Angela. He was shaking and was having a hard time not phasing.

"Can you save her?" he asked. "Does she need more blood? Don't you need to have her drink your blood in order to change her? Do that! DO IT! You have to save her! I can't live without her! I've lost too much!" He stood and grabbed Carlisle by the lapels of his shirt. "Save her, goddamnit! I don't care what it takes!" Jasper and I pulled him off of Carlisle.

"Seth, we don't have blood to give her. It doesn't really work like that. When we bite a human, we leave our venom in their blood stream, similar to saliva," Carlisle tried to explain.

"Can you give her more venom? Spit into her wounds or something?"

"We'll do the best we can, Seth. You need to calm down." Carlisle replied while looking over Angela again. He was trying to determine the best way to speed up the venom through her bloodstream before she died.

"Edward, my bag," he said, and I took off to the helicopters. I grabbed his medical bag and ran back. His idea was ingenious.

He took a syringe out of the bag and used it to extract venom out of his mouth. He then stuck it into her chest, into her heart. We all heard her heart stutter and then pick up speed. Carlisle then sealed the bite mark on her neck with his tongue, so no more blood could seep out. He removed her clothes and sealed any open wounds that he could find on her body.

"We need to carry her back to the helicopters. Bring a stretcher," he said and when one was found, we carried her back to the choppers.

Bella ran over to see and fresh tears sprung to her eyes when she looked upon her broken friend.

"Oh Angela! Oh God!" she cried. Esme was behind her, giving as much comfort as she could, though she was visibly upset as well.

"We need to get of here before she starts screaming," Jasper said, scanning the area. We could hear them coming.

"Where are we heading now?" Rosalie asked, coming back to the area with Emmett, who looked distraught. "We're now going to have a ravenous newborn in tow. This changes our plans."

"Not just one. If Angela has changed, then we will need to change Bella as well. We can't have a newborn and a human," Jasper said.

I growled at him.

"Edward, he's right. Angela won't be able to control herself," Alice added. _What's the big deal, Edward? She wouldn't need to be protected as much and we were planning this anyway._

"But…" I started.

"Edward. I know it's not what you wanted, but the situation has changed," Carlisle ganged up on me, too. _Edward, you know there is no other choice._

"But…"

"Don't worry about it right now. We need to get out of here," Alice said, looking towards the zombies that were heading our way.

"Ok, well, where are we going?" Esme said.

"Somewhere secluded, for the newborns," Jasper said.

"Somewhere not in North America. I somehow doubt they will be able to contain the outbreak to Washington," Alice said.

"Well, the helicopters won't get us too far. Can we reach the island?" Esme asked, referring to the island I had planned on taking Bella to on our honeymoon.

"Do you think there is enough food there for all of us?" I asked.

"No, probably not," Carlisle said.

"The infestation probably hasn't made it over to the east coast yet. Why not go as far East as we can, then run to the coast? I'm fairly certain we can avoid people on the way. Then we can take the yacht over to Europe," said Rosalie.

"What about the border control?" Esme asked.

"We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it," Jasper said. _I have my doubts that there will even be a border patrol left by the time we cross over. _I nodded at his sentiment.

We all loaded back into the same helicopters as before. Emmett now had himself under control and was kneeling on the opposite side of the stretcher as Seth. He was feeling both glad and guilty for what he had done. Carlisle slapped a hand on his shoulder.

"It's ok, son. You did fine," he said to Emmett. He nodded absently, still looking at Angela. _I can't believe I almost…Oh my God, I nearly ate her! Fuck, I hope she'll be ok. I hope she'll forgive me…_

BPOV

It didn't take us long to reach the border of Washington and Idaho. I couldn't see clearly, but Edward said that the border patrol that Jake had said was present was no longer there.

"Do you see any…" I started to ask but couldn't bring myself to finish the thought. I realized that I didn't really care anymore.

"Yes, there are some," he answered anyway. He seemed very monotone, and I felt a twinge of worry.

"Edward? How's Angela?" I whispered.

"She'll make it."

I stared at his face for a minute while he was having an intense staring contest with Alice, who was sitting across the way.

"What?" I asked.

"Bella…" he sighed, but Alice began speaking before he could say anything else.

"Bella, we're going to have to change you before Angela's change is complete. She'll be a crazed newborn and we can't have you around her while you're still human," she said.

"Ah…oh," I said. I looked up at Edward, who was grinding his teeth and looking furious.

"Edward, it's ok. It's not like it wasn't going to happen anyway." He shot me a hard look, but I ignored that. I turned back to Alice.

"How will we do this? I assume you won't be doing this on the helicopter, right?"

"Don't worry, Bella. It won't be on the helicopter. Probably when we are on the yacht. Angela's change won't be completed for three or so days and we'll be on the boat before then, barring any unforeseen circumstances. We can't do it on land in the event that the zombies have spread further than we anticipated," Jasper said.

"How much further can we go in the helicopters?" I asked.

"We might be able to make it to North Dakota, but not any more than that. We'll be running the rest of the way," Alice said.

The rest of the ride was fairly silent. Well, at least for me. I knew the others could hear the screams coming from the other helicopter, as they would flinch occasionally, perhaps remembering their own change, or in Alice's case, the relief of not remembering hers.

Eventually we touched down just outside of North Dakota, in some sort of wheat field. The others gathered what they could and Alice strapped Angela to Emmett again, only this time, she positioned her against Emmett's chest so that he could keep her still. She was screaming and jerking around a bit. I saw him whisper in her ear and Rosalie, in a rare gesture of compassion, brushed her hair away from her face. I was strapped to Edward again, and Seth had morphed into his wolf form.

Jasper and Alice took a head start, hoping to keep ahead of us enough for Alice's gift to warn them of any human's in harms way. So far, none of them could detect any zombies around us, but that didn't mean we would encounter any.

And then we ran.


	21. Chapter 21

CarPOV

As we ran through North Dakota, I quickly realized that our plan wasn't going to work. Emmett couldn't run as fast as we needed with Angela screaming and pretty soon we were going to attract some unwanted attention. Edward soon confirmed my fears.

"Everyone, stop. There is a band of people up ahead wondering about the screaming. They think that the zombies are heading their way and are trying to decide whether to run or fight. We need another route."

"Have the zombies made it this far?" Bella asked from behind Edward.

"I'm thinking so, but they've had more time to prepare. We should find a radio or tv or something so we can reconnect with the world," Edward replied.

"Well, I can't go anywhere with Angela," Emmett added. "Can we nab a car or something?"

"Why can't we just get a flight?" Rosalie asked.

"I have my doubts that the airports are running at this point. They might be shooting planes out of the skies, for all we know," Jasper said.

"But we made it here with no problem."

"Yes, but the army will be more prepared this part of the country. They will be looking to save the rest of America and at some point, I suspect that they will be blockading and shooting everyone, infected or not," Jasper said.

I sighed and sat down on the ground. I still couldn't believe I had done this. There must be something I could do…

"Carlisle, please stop blaming yourself. We need a solution for our situation right now. You can worry about a global solution later," said Edward.

"You're right. Are we safe to stop here for a few minutes?" I asked.

"Yes, but not for too much longer. Emmett, can you try to calm Angela down?" Edward asked. Emmett tried his best, but Angela wasn't really responding to his pleas.

"Ok, the quickest way to the east coast is to go as straight as possible, but since we can't go through the great lakes, we'll head south to Illinois when we reach the first one. From there, we'll mirror the I-80 until we get to New York. We'll want to stay out of New York and New Jersey as much as possible because of the population. We'll head south again to Delaware," I said, making a decision.

"Er, the boat is in Maine. Any suggestions on how to get it to Delaware?" Alice asked.

"I'm going to suggest splitting up when we reach New York," Bella piped in. "Angela will be mostly changed by then, yes?" We all nodded. "So then if Edward and I, and whoever else wants to come, can head up towards Maine, get the boat and meet you in Delaware. Edward can start changing me on the boat, and by the time we meet the rest of you, I won't be as edible." Bella was much more intelligent than we gave any human credit for. I was so glad Edward had found her.

"That sounds like a really good idea," Alice said. "If I go with you guys, I might be able to get some glimpses of the future. Jazz," she said, turning to her mate," you should probably go with Emmett. He's going to need the help with Angela." Jasper nodded, although he must not have liked the prospect of leaving Alice.

"Edward, will you need help when you change Bella?" Rosalie asked.

"Probably not. I think I will use the method that Carlisle used with Angela. The syringe of venom will mean that I won't have to bite her; therefore, no one will have to pull me off. Why didn't any of us think of that before? It's brilliant!"

Rose nodded and said "Then I'll stay with Emmett to help control the newborn."

"What about Seth?" Bella asked. "How will he fare with a newborn? Should we have a separate boat or something?

Seth whined, not wanting to be separated from his imprint. "Bella, I don't think that will be a problem," I said looking toward Seth. "The wolves' odour is not of something that is food for us. I doubt that either you or Angela will want his blood." Seth looked very relieved.

"Alright then. Carlisle, Esme, which group will you go with?" Edward asked.

I hesitated. My family needed me, but the world needed me more. "I will go with you as far as New York but no further. I'm going to stay in New York and work on an antidote. I just can't leave this mess behind. I'm sorry everyone."

There was silence, except for Angela. I had stunned even Edward, since I had been blocking this idea from him.

"You…You're leaving us?" Esme stuttered. Her face was crestfallen.

"Esme, will you stay with me?" I asked, knowing that asking her to leave her so-called children would be a heart-wrenching decision for her to make. I felt sick with guilt for making her choose.

"Oh, Carlisle…I…How…"

"GET THEM!"

All of us looked up to see a group of human males with shotguns and baseball bats come flying from their hiding place nearby.

"Shit! Sorry guys, I had completely tuned them out," Edward apologized. "Do we run?"

"Yes," I said. "We have no choice. They might injure Bella or Angela. They will probably just think we are zombies if they don't get a close look. Go!"

I grabbed Esme's hand and we took off again towards our next destination, leaving the terrified men to wonder what the hell had just happened. Alice and Jasper broke off from the rest of us by a couple of miles.

"Where are they going?" I heard Bella ask Edward.

"Alice is going to see if she can see what's ahead," he replied. Not 20 minutes later, she and Jasper came back our way with some interesting news.

"We saw some zombie remains. The infection has spread this far, at least," Jasper said as he caught up with Emmett.

"I think they've gone farther than that, too. I can't get a clear vision of what's going to happen when we reach our destination," Alice added.

Seth barked. "No, Seth, she can't see Bella's or my futures either, even though we've decided to split up. So either something happens when we reach New York that causes us all to stay together, or the zombies themselves are causing the holes in her vision," Edward answered Seth's unheard question.

"Well of course the infection has spread. How many people were exposed and then got in their cars and drove off. It's a good thing we're avoiding the major cities. It's probably pandemonium!" Rose said.

"Good point," Emmett said, still cradling Angela, who seemed to have succumbed to her exhaustion and was now only whimpering instead of screaming. I would have to check on her when we next stopped.

Beside me, my mate was silent. "Esme?" I whispered to her. "Please tell me what you are thinking?" She looked over at me and began to slow down. I slowed to match her pace and we fell back from the group. Edward looked back at me.

_We'll be along, Edward. We'll catch up later. _He nodded and they continued on their way.

EsPOV

He asked me to choose between himself and our family? My children? How could he ask me such a thing? How could he even consider leaving us was the right choice?

"Carlisle, your place is with us," I said once the rest of the group had gone on ahead. He and I slowed to almost a normal human pace.

"No, Esme. I am needed here more than our family needs us. They may be our children of sorts, but we must remember that each of them, including Bella and maybe even Angela, have more life experience than the average senior citizen. And I have no doubt that they will be sticking together as a family, whether we are there or not."

"But, I need them as much as I need you," I answered. I knew that he was right, but the pull to keep the family together in crisis was strong. "And I need you, Carlisle, even if they can survive without you. I cannot."

"Then stay with me, Esme. I don't want to do this alone. I need you, as well," he said as he caressed my face. I shivered as a warm feeling flowed through me. He touch, no matter the situation, always calmed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close. His lips trailed across my face and down my neck, sending a flood of warmth throughout my entire body.

"Please stay," he whispered. "Please…" His arms wrapped tightly around my waist, holding me close to him. I could feel him growing hard against my belly. I couldn't help my to shift my hips to feel more of him.

"Esme," he groaned and pulled my lips to his, crushing me in his desperation. Our tongues danced as he lowered me to the ground. I drank in his spicy sweet scent as his hands removed the barrier of clothes between us carefully, as so not to tear them.

He lowered me back to the ground and spread my legs and nestled himself between them. He took his hardness in his hand and with one quick thrust, his swollen member was inside of my wetness. We both moaned as he began working his hips, sliding himself inside of me, causing a delicious friction.

I wrapped my legs around his hips and pushed him even deeper inside of me while he leaned forward and wrapped one arm around my back, while the other one fondled my sensitive breast. He looked up into my eyes, and told me that he loved me. I wrapped my arms around his neck again and pulled him towards me, our mouths fighting for control, neither one winning or losing.

I could feel the heat smoldering inside of me and it wasn't long before I teetered on the edge of ecstasy. Carlisle always knew how to push me forward and he broke our kiss to lean down and bite the nipple of the breast he favoured. I screamed as his teeth clamped down and his tongue flicked the sensitive nipple and my orgasm came crashing down on me. That must have been too much for him to bear, as felt him pulsating inside of me and he breathlessly cried my name.

We laid together on the ground for a few moments before we silently got up and dressed again. He kept looking over at me, and I knew he wanted my answer. I just couldn't give it to him then.

BPOV

It was dark when I finally couldn't take it any more.

"Edward can we stop for a few minutes. I need to stretch and I really need to …er…have a human moment," I said, my face turning bright red. I hadn't peed in hours and I thought that my bladder might erupt.

"Of course, Love. Alice, can you go with her?" I wanted to protest, but when I thought about it, it was quite dark, and with my luck, I would pee all over myself. That would be immeasurably more embarrassing than to have Alice help me now.

"Sure. Bella, we'll go over this way. The rest of you can keep going. We won't be too long," Alice said and she lifted me out of the harness, took my hand and lead me over to a group of trees clustered together thick enough that Edward wouldn't be able to see me. I couldn't wait to become a vampire, just so I wouldn't have to deal with bodily functions, like pee, ever again.

"Don't let me pee all over myself, please," I whispered to Alice, even though I'm sure Edward could hear.

"Of course not! I even have some toilet paper so that you don't end up wiping with poison ivy," Alice giggled.

"Who told you about that!" I blurted out. Edward laughed. "That's not funny, you!" I shouted back at him. His laughter turned into a fake coughing fit. _Jerk_. I thought to myself, glad that my jerk of a fiancé couldn't hear my thoughts.

"Sorry, Love," he shouted back.

"Sorry Bella. Charlie told me about that one night when you and Edward first started dating. He laughed so hard I thought he was going to keel over." She was silent for a moment. "I'm really going to miss him, Bella."

"Yeah," I croaked. "Me too."

I did my business and used the toilet paper Alice had so thoughtfully remembered to bring for me. "Hey, look at that! You didn't get messy at…all," Alice said as I stumbled backwards and landed my shoe in the puddle of my own pee. I could hear Edward's muffled laughter from behind the tree. I sighed and wiped as much of it off as I could.

When I went back around the tree, Edward was doubled over holding his stomach, trying not to laugh out loud.

"You think that's funny, Mr. Cullen?" I asked in a stern voice.

"Oh my god, yes Bella, I'm sorry" he choked out, trying not to laugh in my face.

So I kicked him in the rear with my pee-soaked sneaker. Alice roared with laughter.

"There," I said with a smirk. "Now I think it's funny too."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

BPOV

At some point, I fell asleep again, restless as it was. Broken dreams about Jake and Charlie and brain-eating Zombies would wake me frequently, but I was too tired to stay awake for long. Angela had stopped screaming at some point during the run, and I figured it wouldn't be long before her change would be completed.

At some point, I gave up trying to sleep and asked Edward where we were.

"We are about half-way through Pennsylvania, love," he said.

"How much longer until we reach New York?"

"Not long now; maybe another hour and a half to two hours before we reach the state's edge."

"Angela's almost done cooking now," said Emmett. "We should probably split up before we hit New York."

"Agreed," said Carlisle. "Let's stop for a few minutes and discuss what's to happen."

So we stopped in a small wooded area under the cover of some trees. The sun still hadn't come up, but the dull grey colour of the sky told met that it would fairly soon. Alice pulled me out of the harness and I promptly fell on the ground. My legs had fallen asleep. Everyone chuckled as Edward helped me stand up.

Jasper spread out a map and lit a flashlight for my benefit. "We are just outside of Altoona. Emmett's group will need to reach Delaware soon." He looked over at Angela and frowned. "I suggest that we split up immediately to avoid any accidents."

Seth, who had shifted back to his human form, stood next to Angela and Emmett. "Carlisle, would you please come with us to Delaware? And stay? At least until Edward's group comes to us with the boat? I'm scared for her."

Carlisle stood still for a moment, and then looked over at Esme, who nodded. "Alright," he said. "Esme?"

"I will go with Edward, Bella and Alice," Esme said in a small voice. "They might need help with Bella's change. After that, I will stay with you, Carlisle, where ever you might go." She took Carlisle's hand and he smiled down at her.

"Ok. Let's get moving then," Rose said.

"You guys go; Bella needs to have a rest before travelling any further. I also want to see if I can see anything," Alice said.

Everyone nodded and after a brief, but sad exchange of goodbyes and hugs, Emmett's group sped off into the early morning while the rest of us stood and watched our family go.

"How long are we staying here for?" Esme asked.

"Not too long, right?" I asked. "I'll just need something to eat and a bathroom break, then we can go. Do you think we are safe here?"

"I don't hear anything close by, so we should be good for a short time, anyway. Half an hour, then?" Edward asked.

"That should be fine," I agreed. Esme and Alice nodded.

I sat on the cold ground and began to dig through Alice's pack for something to eat and found some pop tarts, a bottle of juice and a baggie of baby carrots. My stomach rumbled at the site of food and I greedily scarfed it down. Edward sat down next to me, but was looking intently at Alice, who appeared to be having a vision.

"Our path seems mostly clear, only a few potential issues along the way; the sun being one of them. We'll have to be careful when we get to the docks. There will be at least 2 blockades the army has put up along the way. I'll look out for those the closer we get to look for an alternate route. And there are possibly some zombies the closer we get to Maine. There are a lot of blocks in my vision no matter which route we take, but there are less of them if we go through New Hampshire. We'll just have to be careful," Alice said, her eyes refocusing on the present.

"Oh dear, they made it as far east as New England?" Esme said.

"Seems odd, considering the lack of zombie activity we've seen in the past few states," Edward said.

"Who knows," I said. "There could have been a flight with one infected person on it. That would cause it to spread."

"Possible. No matter," Edward replied, shrugging. "We'll just have to be careful."

After a few more minutes of me resting, I shoved my garbage into Alice's bag and stood. No point in waiting around.

Trees and grass sped by us as I tried to keep my thoughts away from our present situation. Much to Edward's dismay, I began humming "99 bottles of beer on the wall" in order to keep my thoughts focused.

"Oh God, Love, really?" he asked, sounding quite tortured.

I laughed, and feeling a little cheeky, I began to sing out loud. "99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 bottles of beer! You take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall…" I saw could hear him grind his teeth a little, so I have him a peck on the back of his neck to make him feel better. But I kept singing. Alice and Esme snickered a little.

I made it down to 36 bottles when Alice stopped.

"What was that, Al? I didn't quite catch that?" Edward said, probably referring to a vision she had. The look on Alice's face indicated that it wasn't good.

"I…I'm not quite certain. But I think that you should prepare those syringes for Bella," she said, referring to the quick method of changing me. This set me on edge, and Edward could tell.

"Try not to worry, Love, ok?" he said, trying to put me at ease, though he didn't relax any. He pulled some syringes out of his pocket and stuck them into his mouth, drawing out his venom. He stuck them back into his pocket.

"Sure, sure," I muttered.

We ran on.

I guessed us to be about halfway through New Hampshire when we ran into trouble. First, the sun came out, limiting where we could run. And second, there were Zombies. Everywhere.

"Holy shit! They are everywhere!" Alice said, trying to find a route that would take us around them. But it seemed no matter which way we went; we were either stuck by the sun, or surrounded by hordes that were quite large.

"Ok, let's stop and think for a minutes. Plus I need to pee again," I said.

Esme hoisted me out and I went behind a tree several feet away to relieve myself. In retrospect, this was a very bad idea. As I was pulling myself together, I heard a noise in the tree above me.

Three things happened at once. I looked to see a zombie with part of its leg missing fall out of the tree above me, Alice began yelling my name, and Edward grabbed me by the arm and pulled.

In the next second, some more things happened, and none of them were good. As Edward pulled me away from the tree, he dislocated my shoulder and the zombie who had fallen was somehow able to bite me just above my hip, leaving an imprint of its teeth in my flesh.

Suddenly, I was lying on the ground with Esme behind me, putting my shoulder back in place and Alice and Edward were removing my clothes by shredding them to bits.

"Bella, I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt a lot," Edward said, and without another moment's hesitation, bent down and he bit into my side where the zombie had bit me, and tore off the chunk of infected flesh. I'm pretty sure I screamed, but things got kind of fuzzy at that point. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a gush of blood flowing from the wound. The last thing I heard was Alice screaming "Can't one Goddamn thing go right?" My last thought was that this must be what its like to be attacked by a shark. Then there was nothing.

EPOV

"Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!" I yelled at no one in particular, as I worked to change Bella before she bled to death in front of me. After I tore part of her side off, I quickly drove the two syringes I had in my pocket into her heart. But because my mouth had touched her infected flesh, I didn't dare bite her again, so Alice was biting her at various points on her body, like her wrists and neck, while Esme was trying to seal the part I had bit out of her. And we were all struggling not to eat her.

I looked over to the tree where she had been attacked and now saw the bloody trail working its way up to where the zombie had likely climbed shortly after becoming infected. I could also see the claw marks on the bark and the ground all around the tree was disturbed, as though there was a lot of shuffling. The zombie that had attacked her was moaning and slowly clawing its way over to where we were. I stood and walked over to it and mashed my foot into its skull.

"You fucker!" I screamed at the lifeless corpse in front of me. I grabbed it, and threw it randomly into another tree, where its bones shattered and it again fell to the ground. Continuing my rage, I ripped the offending tree from its roots and threw it at the zombie corpse, toppling a couple more trees and completely squishing the dead zombie.

"Edward, please calm down. You are going to attract more of those things," Esme said looking up from Bella's gaping wound, her face covered in Bella's blood. I took everything I had to not go over the lick it off her face. I shook my head at the nasty thought.

"Edward, the blood's not stopping fast enough. I need something to pack the hole with," Esme said, "Can you get something from the bag?"

I grabbed some gauze, and silently blessed Alice for packing more gauze than the average doctor used in a year, and went back over the Bella to help stop the bleeding. We packed the hole as well as we could and wrapped her in a blanket. I was both glad and worried that she had already blacked out.

"Alice, can you see? Will she make it?" I asked desperately.

"Maybe. I get flashes of her, but something isn't quite right about her change. I can't see how it'll work out."

"What do you mean, Alice?" Esme asked.

"I can see flashes of her, but I can't tell if she'll awaken as a vampire or a zombie."

"But, you can't see zombies, right? I mean, if you can see her, then she will be a vampire, right?" I was begging her. I could already see Alice's visions, but like her, I couldn't tell.

She just looked at me sadly.

We heard more moaning and when we looked up, we could see three zombies heading towards us, about 100 yards away. That was all we fucking needed right now.

"Come on, then. We can't stay here," Alice said, packing up as much as she could back into the bag.

I looked down at my Bella and wanted to cry. Her face had taken on a greenish tinge and she was sweating profusely. As gently as I could, I picked her up and carried her bridal-style. We had to go slower, less than half the speed we were travelling before, as she would often start to bleed again.

It was nearly sun down when we made it to Maine, which was perfect. Our boat was harboured in Portland, and we had to go through the city to get there. We were all worried about how the humans would view us, carrying a bleeding, sick person in a blanket, but our worry was for not, because we discovered that Portland was nearly empty, except for zombies, of which there were many.

"Alice?" Esme asked, wanting to know which route was the safest.

"I see nothing," she said, "There are too many of them. Should we just make a run for it? I doubt there is anyone left to see us, and even if they did, so what. I don't think it matters at this point."

We were all in agreement, so we just took off through the city streets, dodging any zombies that were in the way. We reached the marina in under 5 minutes, which was great, but the activity had jostled Bella and she was bleeding again, although slower and more sluggishly. I wasn't sure if this was good or not.

And because God in Heaven hated our guts, our boat was missing. And most of the other boats were also gone or destroyed.

"Seriously?" I yelled at the Heavens. "Are you really, fucking serious?"

I laid Bella down on the deck, and unwrapped the blanket to check her injuries. Her bleeding had slowed, but she was still sweating. Her heart beat was irregular, too; beating fast one minute, and then slowing down to a crawl then next. I wished that Carlisle had come with us. I re-wrapped her and sat on the deck beside her.

"Now what?" I asked.

Everyone was silent for a minute while contemplating the situation. Bella began to moan a little. I pulled her into my arms and gently rocked her. She stopped moaning.

"You stay here will Bella, and Esme and I will go look for another boat. There must be something left in the harbour," Alice said.

"If not? Because that would be our luck."

"Then we swim out to sea, and hope that we find a boat full of infected people or zombies and take it from them," Esme added.

"Or we'll have to find a place here to wait until she awakens and then re-assess the situation. Then we can swim if we have to," Alice said.

"They're waiting for us in Delaware," I said, not really sounding like I cared. At the moment, I wasn't sure that I did.

"They can wait," Alice said. "Why don't you get Bella into the marina's club house," she said, pointing to the large building behind us. Esme and I will look for another ship."

I nodded and picked Bella up and headed to the building. I couldn't tell if there were any zombies in the building, since the whole city of Portland was a-buzz with zombie brain signatures, so I asked Alice and Esme to stay a moment and help me determine if the building was safe. After a quick search, we found 4 zombies in the building, and quickly dispatched them. They left to search for a water craft and I laid Bella in the bar area on top of a pool table and stood next to her to wait.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

APOV

Esme and I scanned every marina, inlay, and waterfront cottage we could find and found nothing that was suitable to our needs.

"Can we not just swim?" Esme asked.

"Well, we can, but what about Seth? I'm sure he's a strong swimmer, but he's still human. He wouldn't make it," I replied. "That is, if Angela doesn't destroy him before we get there. I hope they are doing ok."

"Still can't see?" I shook my head.

"Can we call? Does your phone have any juice left?"

"Nope, she's dead," I said, lamenting my defunct smartphone.

Esme sighed and looked around us at the empty harbour. "Shall we swim out and see what we can find?"

I nodded and we jumped into the water and swam out into the ocean. The moon was out tonight, and with the light reflecting in the water, we could see several bodies; some dead, some undead. A picnic cooler floated along side me and I opened it to see if there would be anything useful inside, but was dismayed to see a zombie head, which snapped at me. Grossed out, I closed the lid and pushed it away from me.

We were surprised to see an entire fleet of personal watercraft just past the last stretch of land. The smart humans had taken to the water. I even saw our stolen ship. We stopped swimming not far from it.

"Alright, let's take back our boat," I said and started towards our yacht.

"Alice! No! Look, there are people out in view. Healthy humans. We can't just leave them without protection," Esme gasped.

"Fuck the humans," I said. "I want to get out of here."

Esme have me one of her stern mother looks, and I backed down. She was right, of course. I was just frustrated with our luck.

"Let's head back to shore, then," I sighed.

We ended up a short distance away from Portland and crawled out of the water. I was drenched and smelled of death and fish. I begged Esme to find somewhere where we could get cleaned up and changed. She agreed and we found our way into Freeport.

The normally bustling town was deserted, except for a few stray Zeds. We grabbed some clothes for ourselves and for the others, and made our way into a nearby hotel to shower. Once cleaned up, we sat on the bed in the dark room, fatigued by failure. I continued to try to see what lay ahead, but was unable. I flopped down on the mattress.

Esme got up and began rummaging through the desk drawer. She pulled out a phone book, and sat down on the bed and began flipping through the yellow pages.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

"Boat sales! Why didn't we think of that before?" she cried in excitement. I sat up.

"Well, I don't know. Is there anything nearby?"

"Would you believe me if I told you there was a place down the road?" Esme said, closing the book and getting our gear together.

"Shit! Really?" I jumped up and ran to the door to open it for her. "Let's go!"

And sure enough, just about 2 miles from the hotel, there was a yacht sales lot, across the street from the bay. We stood in amazement at the selection of luxury yachts, ranging from small and fast to large and fast. These hadn't been touched at all, probably because a human without the right equipment would not be able to get it into the water. But as vampires, of course, we could just pick one up and carry it. I jumped up and down with excitement, unable to contain myself.

We skipped through the lot, trying to assess which would best suit our needs when we saw it. It was the most beautiful craft I had ever seen. It was large enough to hold the 8 of us that would be travelling. It was luxurious, fast, sleek and best of all, it ran on solar energy. We wouldn't have to worry about fuel, even though it might take some extra time to make it across the Atlantic.

"Have you ever seen anything so perfect in all your life, Esme?" I said in awe of the giant craft.

"It's gorgeous!" she replied.

We wasted no time breaking into the office to look for the keys, which had been locked away in the safe. After some not-so fancy safe cracking, we grabbed the keys and loaded our supplies onto the ship, hoisted it onto the large trailer sitting in the yard, wheeled it across the street and into the water. This was no small feat, even for us, and by the end of it all we were dirty again.

After a quick cleanup and a pit stop at a small grocery store in town to get supplies for Seth, we headed back to the boat and sailed towards the marina where Edward and Bella waited. Maybe our luck was starting to turn around.

EPOV

A short time after Alice and Esme left, Bella began to stirring. Her moans filled me with grief, but that was nothing compared to how I felt when the screaming started. Agony mixed with fear was the flavour of the day and when I began to hear the shuffling of feet coming from the living dead; Bella's screams drawing them to us. I knew I would be ok, but I was not sure how I would protect Bella, alone, against a large group of zombies. She was beginning to heal and change, the screaming alone indicated that, but her flesh was not yet hard enough to withstand an attack.

I braced the doors of the lounge as well as I could and moved Bella to the ground behind the bar, were there would be more cover. I searched around for something that I could use as a weapon, and had to satisfy myself with broken bar stool legs as spears. I was thankful for the size of the bar, and was able to fashion a good number of small spears before the wood of the door finally cracked and the rotting, walking corpses spilled into the room.

The stench was unbearable. Many of the zombies were older, having been turned on the first day or two of the outbreak, and they had flesh rotting off their bones. Most had little to no clothing left and their nakedness was offensive. Their moaning breath was so rank; I could see the noxious gases rise from their lips, creating a small cloud that hung in the air like an acid rain cloud. Insects crawled over their bodies, entering and exiting a variety of orifices. They no longer had any recognizable human feature, and the ones with torn limbs no longer bled; instead, they dripped greyish goo from their sores.

I threw the spears, taking out 24 of the stinking fuckers, the spears piercing their brains and flinging them back into the walls and the other zombies. Soon they were too close for me to throw anymore and I had to move onto hand-to-hand combat. I grabbed two converted bar-stool legs and leapt over the bar, determined to protect my fiancée from the creatures. I stabbed at the first Zed to come near me; the spear went through his eye into his brain. I kicked the corpse out of the way.

I grabbed the next two and smashed their skulls together, sending grey matter flying. I shoved those two aside and continued onto the next group to come at me. I fought tirelessly, moving as fast as I could, but the shear number of them was overwhelming and they were starting to overtake me. I was beginning to wonder if every zombie in the Portland area had come when I heard a loud horn coming from outside. I listened for Alice or Esme and was overjoyed to hear them in my thoughts. I shoved the zombies that had gained purchase on me and turned in time to throw another one off the bar.

I leaped over the bar and grabbed Bella, more roughly than I would have liked, but I didn't have time to dwell on it. I tossed her up over the horde and ran overtop of them to catch her before she hit the floor. I kicked open the wall and leapt down the two story building with Bella in my arms and onto to small stones of the beach. I looked over to the water and was elated to see Alice and Esme waving from the bow of the large yacht.

"Thank you, God," I yelled into the sky and I could see Alice laugh as she climbed into a small raft. Esme lowered it to the water and Alice rowed it to shore for us. I gently loaded my Bella inside and jumped in after her. We made it back to the yacht just as the army of the undead began making its way to the shoreline. With Esme's help, we hoisted the lifeboat back onto the yacht and we set sail to pick up the others.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

BPOV

I don't remember a great deal about my change, except the pain. Holy shitballs, there was pain! I expected the burning, in fact, I welcomed it, since I meant that I would finally be safe from zombies and I would get to be with Edward to eternity, but there also something else. It started from where Edward had torn my flesh away and spread, moving through my veins and into my heart, where this strange sensation and the venom seemed to duke it out, UFC style. Finally, it seemed as though the venom won, and the burning took over completely.

The last hours were the worst. My mind seemed to be working ten thousand miles a second, and I could smell the strangest scents. I could hear everything; Edward moving beside me, Alice and Esme on the top deck speaking, the water lapping at the side of the boat and even fish swimming miles beneath the surface of the ocean. I wanted to open my eyes, but the light hurt them, so I kept them shut.

Edward called the others in when my heart began to beat erratically. I hoped that this meant it was the beginning of the end and sure enough it was. The burning faded from my arms and legs and seemed in concentrate in my heart, which thumped so hard in my chest, I thought it might explode. Then once, twice and nothing.

I opened my eyes to a world of Super-Incredible HD quality. Everything was in focus and I felt as though I could touch colour itself. I could see across the room as well as I could see in front of me and I had a hard time stopping myself from looking at the impurities in the air. I took a breath in and realized I could taste the air. It was as horrible as it was wonderful. But this is when I realized my eternal pain-in-the-ass. I was thirsty. My eyes darted over to Edward.

"Drink," I croaked out with my new voice.

He immediately produced several bags of human blood. Ignoring everyone and everything around me, I bit into the first bag and nearly came from the experience of having the lukewarm blood wash down my parched throat. It was gone way too soon, and I tore into the rest of the bags, sucking them dry in seconds.

"More!" I said with desperation. Alice flew from the room and came back with two more boxes. I devoured them.

"I need more!" I yelled, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw the three of them exchange worried looks. This just made me irrationally angry. I snarled fiercely and ran from the room, looking for more boxes. I found them and ripped through them all, blood splattering everywhere. It looked as though I murdered a small village and I suddenly stopped licking the last bag and sat down. I finally understood why Edward always thought he was a monster. Had I been unleashed, I would have murdered a small village trying to sate my thirst.

"Oh dear," I said to myself. Edward was next to me in a flash.

"Don't worry love," he said putting his arm around me. "We were all like that." I nodded.

"I don't know why, Alice," he said suddenly, speaking to one of Alice's thoughts.

"Why what?" I asked.

They exchanged a look. "Why one of your eyes stayed brown," Alice said.

"What?" I asked. "Where's a mirror?"

"In there," Alice said, pointing to the small bathroom. I went in and stared at myself.

I was unnaturally beautiful. My brown hair had a reddish shimmer to it and a thickness and waviness that I had never had when I was human. My skin was flawless, pale; almost silvery. I ran my hands down my body to feel how hard it was now, when I felt a bite-sized indent along my side, just over my hip. I lifted my shirt and saw the horrible looking wound. I sort of remembered why that was there and I asked Edward if that would ever grow back. He just shook his head and I went back to looking at my face.

"So only one red eye. Huh," I said. "Does that make me half a freak?" I asked. "I'm going to stand out, even among vampires!" I sounded like I was whining.

"Don't worry about it, Love. The red will fade and the gold colour will blend more easily with the brown. Besides, I kind of like the fact that I still get to see one brown eye. That was one of my favourite features about you," Edward said with a wink and I felt my panties dampen. I wanted him. Now! I growled a little and his eyes darkened.

Esme cleared her throat and muttered something about needing to navigate. Alice offered to help her and up the stairs they went. Neither Edward nor I paid them any heed as we continued to look at each other.

Finally he said "You're covered in blood. We should clean that up." I nodded and he began running his tongue over my chin, licking the blood off of me. I took the opportunity to remove his clothing by shredding it under my fingers. He growled deeply and bared his teeth at me and I hissed back at him. He grabbed me and threw me on the floor and tore my pants off. Within milliseconds, he was inside me, thrusting harder than I ever thought possible, licking and biting me where I was covered in the most blood. I continued to snarl at him, while tearing my fingernails into his flesh. On one level, I thought that I must be hurting him, but I was too far gone to really care.

We rolled over the floor, coating ourselves in the tacky blood from the bags I had decimated. We were red, slick and, motherfucker, it was hot! I threw my head back as an orgasm overtook me and spotted a bag that I had missed. Suddenly, I had thrown him off of me and flipped over on my hands and knees in an effort to get to the bag, but he was fast and pulled himself into me, and rammed me from behind while I bit into bag.

I'm not sure how many hours of pure, raw animalistic sex we had, but it seemed to go on forever. And I never wanted it to stop, until I heard the sounds of people on a boat a mile or so away from ours. I lifted my head from licking Edward's stomach and took a deep breath in. The smell of warm, human blood drifted through the open porthole and I was off of Edward, up the stairs and into the water before Edward even realized I was gone.

"Bella! No!" I heard Alice cry from the bow, and even though all three jumped into the ocean to try to catch me, I was newborn and fast and none of them would be able to catch me in time.

I boarded the other boat, naked and wet, to the delight of the male passengers of the small watercraft. Their delight didn't last long, as I tore into the first one's throat and let his delicious fluid coat my throat and fill my belly. The others began screaming "Zombie! Oh my god! Zombie!" until I shut them up as well. When it was over, I stood on the bow, still wet, still naked with their blood dripping down my chin.

"Holy shit! Holy fuck!" I began to become hysterical. "What do I do?" I looked out into the water, where the others floated, waiting for me to finish. "Edward? What do I fucking do?"

He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He was staring behind me, so I turned to look. My mouth dropped as the bodies of the men I had just killed began to reanimate into zombies.


	25. Chapter 25

Epilogue

BPOV

After watching that first batch of humans I chowed down on come back as mindless Zed Heads, I vowed never to attack another human. Of course, this was way harder than any of us had ever imagined, and I was solely responsible for starting small epidemics in Iceland, Norway and Poland. After that, the Cullen's kept me as far away from civilization as possible. I couldn't be around humans without attacking them for nearly five years. Carlisle suspected my lack of control was a result of being infected by a zombie prior to being infected by a vampire, and that little bit of virus has caused the fundamental change.

We were lucky to get out of North America when we did. The US government, in collaboration with Canada decided to drop a nuke in Washington, which affected the entire west coast. Unfortunately, it did not have the desired effect of eradicating the zombies. Instead, along with the environmental problems that stretched all the way to Japan and back, it also created mutant zombies; zombies so horrible and hideous that I can't even describe them without wanting to vomit.

Carlisle and Esme stayed in New York for a little while, but the rioting and the Marshall Law made it too difficult to stay there, not to mention the rumours that other countries would be bombing North America to prevent the spread of zombies to their own countries. They didn't even bother with a boat; they just jumped in and swam to Europe.

After my slip up in Poland, I discovered another fun-slash-horrible thing about making zombies. Completely by accident, I learned that I had the ability to control them. I had slipped up, and killed three people hiking near our cabin in the forest. As I watched them rise, I slapped my hand against my forehead at my stupidity. Then I watched in amazement, as the three zombies did exactly the same thing. And when my jaw dropped open, so did theirs.

"Holy shit!" I yelled. And then I smelled the horrible stench of two of the Zed's dropping loads in their pants, while the other one stood their staring vacantly at me.

When Emmett and Edward showed up to catch me, I showed them what I had discovered and the two of them laughed so hard they couldn't even stand up. I glared at them in anger, and the three zombies immediately attacked Emmett. He screamed like a girl and smashed their heads in.

Somehow, word got out about my little talent and the Voltouri came knocking at the door. With the exception of Angela and Seth, who were living apart from us, we were all taken into custody and locked into vamp-proof cells in the basement of Volterra Castle for a few days before Aro graced us with his presence.

"Which one of you can raise the dead?" he asked, although I was quite certain he already knew.

"M…me," I whispered. "Please don't hurt the others. It's not their fault!" I begged and I ran to the bars of the cell and fell onto my knees. "Please let them go!"

Carlisle stood and walked over to where I stood and put his hand on my shoulder.

"No, if anyone is to blame, it is I, Aro. I inadvertently created the epidemic which plagues the Americas. Please, it is not her fault."

Well, Aro was none to please to discover that his good friend Carlisle was responsible for the vampires' food supply being contaminated. He motioned to the guards to grab the two of us and we were summoned into the same chamber where I had stood with Edward and Alice those years ago. We heard the cries of our family from the cells, begging to me brought with us, but their cries went unanswered.

So Carlisle and I stood, awaiting our trial. First, Aro wanted proof that I was able to control the zombies, and produced two humans for me to demonstrate with.

"Oh, please no!" I cried. I had no control over what was about to happen to these poor souls, and I devoured them within moments.

When they began to rise as Zeds, Aro demanded I do something extravagant, to show that any of their movements were not coincidence. I thought for a moment and made them dance the Macarena. The room was divided on whether or not they thought this was amusing, but the three people who mattered did not.

Caius sat back on his throne. "How can we know that you will not raise armies of the dead to wipe out our race? We know how you feel about our kind."

I stared at him like he had two heads. "Well that would be stupid! We try not to eat humans because we value their lives. It would be counter-productive to infect them all with an incurable plague," I said with a little more attitude than was necessary. I saw Carlisle wince beside me.

Caius flew from his chair and smacked me across the face. I crumpled to the floor in a heap. "Watch your mouth, Zombie Queen!" He raised his hand to me to strike again.

"Enough, Caius," Aro said as he walked over to me to help me off the floor. But once I stood, he would not let go. I realized he was trying to read my mind.

"I see you have maintained your previous gift," he said letting me go. "I cannot tell if you are truthful."

Carlisle offered his hand instead and he took it.

"Hmmm. I believe you must be truthful, for Carlisle would not stand for a liar amongst his coven." He walked back to the others and they stood in silent deliberation. I nearly chewed off my bottom lip, waiting to hear if I would be destroyed. Carlisle wrapped his arms around me as we waited.

"We have decided," Aro said walking back towards us. "We will let you live. But you are forbidden to feast on humans. Should we discover that you slipped and created another abomination, you will be destroyed." Relief washed over me.

"As for you, my dear Carlisle," he said, turning to his old friend. "I am greatly disappointed. You have unleashed this wicked beast, and for that, you must be punished. But I will not destroy you. Your skills will be invaluable in helping eradicate this scourge from the earth. You are to remain here until you find the answers you seek, no matter how long it takes. You will be provided with the equipment you will require and living quarters for you and your mate."

Carlisle breathed a sigh of relief. He was grateful to his old friend for his lenience, even if it meant years of servitude. Unfortunately, this meant that our family would be separated for a while, as I was not yet ready to live this near humans and I knew that Alice and Jasper would not want to live so near the Voltouri.

So for the next several years, Edward, Alice, Jasper and I lived in the wilds of Sibera, while Carlisle, Esme and Rose and Emmett lived in Italy. We lost contact with Angela and Seth for a number of years while they worked on their own issues of trying to maintain an inter-species relationship.

Our wedding was delayed for quite some time. At first, I refused to get married until my thirst was under control, but when that time came, we both decided to wait until we could be together as a family, since Carlisle was not allowed to travel as part of his punishment. It was only 10 years later that we were finally able to tie the knot. Due to Alice's meddling, it was a grand affair, with guests ranging from the Voltouri to Carlisle's friend Allister, a vampire hermit. Seth walked me down the aisle as homage to my Forks roots and we all wept over the loss of my Dad, Jake, and of the Quileute clan, who so bravely helped us when we were in need.

Seth and Angela eventually were able to work things out. The imprinting instinct is stronger than any of us could have imagined, and they somehow manage to tolerate each other's scents and the desire to kill each other. It's unfortunate that Seth's family line will never be passed down through Angela, but they are considering having a surrogate mother with Seth's wolf genes in order to keep the family tree alive.

Rosalie has adapted to her new skill quite well and she and Seth often go out in their wolf forms for runs. She understands Seth's need for a pack and is willing to tolerate his stench. She puts up a big fuss about it to us, but secretly, I think she also feels the need to run with another wolf.

Carlisle did eventually discover a cure for the zombie virus, with my help. Because of my need to be away from humans, and Carlisle's need of my venom, we often shipped samples of it to him. When I was finally able to tolerate humans, we often went to Italy to help him with his experiments.

Epidemics still pop up every now and again, mostly in small, poor villages, where the people stumble upon the corpses of long forgotten zombies. But the humans, equipped with a better understanding of the virus works, are now able to control those situations. Western US and Canada will be a long time in recovering from the nuclear blast and the damage it caused, but for the most part, the world has moved on.


End file.
